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THE DECLINE OF ARISTOCRACY IN 
THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



BT 



DIXON RYAN FOX, A. M. 

Instructor in History, Columbia University 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
I918 



THE DECLINE OF AEISTOCRACY IN 
THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



BY 

DIXON RYAN FOX, A. M. 

Instructor in History, Oolumbia University 



SUBMITTED IN PARTUL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THB 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



I cj _//'S'/ 9 



NEW YORK 
I918 



J?? 



Copyright, 1919 

BY 

DIXON RYAN FOX 
aift 



o 



MY WIFE 
MARIAN OSGOOD FOX 

INSPIRING COMRADE 



FOREWORD 

At the opening of the nineteenth century democracy- 
was new; men were still described as gentlemen and 
simple-men, in America as well as in the monarchies 
across the sea. Disparities of rank were still sustained 
by those of property, but in a country such as ours, where 
the touch of energy could turn resources into wealth, 
prescriptive rights could not long remain unchallenged. 
In no colony had the lines of old caste been more clearly 
drawn than in New York ; in no state were they more 
completely rubbed away. How an aristocracy of birth 
was changed to one of money and was often ousted from 
control, how Federalists became Clintonians and Clin- 
tonians turned into Whigs, is to be the theme of the 
following pages. 

The history of New York state has been well told. 
Few contemporary narratives have been more full and 
fair than that contained within Judge Hammond's vol- 
umes published in the 'forties. Nor could the general 
reader want a more complete and readable account than 
that of Col. Alexander, published some ten years ago. 
These historians, however, in the manner of the older 
school, have dealt objectively with events and personal- 
ities, without giving much attention to the social and 
economic causes which went far to make them what they 
were. The present writer, with a narrower theme, has 
essayed to penetrate beneath the laws and party plat- 
forms in hope of explanations. It is a story he believes 



VI 



FOREWORD 



to be of interest, however haltingly related, tracing as it 
does the fortunes of a class, accustomed by training and 
tradition to the conduct of affairs, but forced to yield 
before what seemed to them the great disaster of democ- 
racy ; it deals with their unpalatable compromises and 
slow liberalization, and the final welding of a business 
party appropriate to the conditions of America. It is 
hoped that thus it may throw another ray of light upon 
the evolution of society in the Empire State. 

To Professor William A. Dunning of Columbia Uni- 
versity, the author is under special obligation for the 
keen but kindly criticism which he has brought to bear 
upon this study, and for his sacrifice of many hours 
to the tedious task of reading proof. Professor Her- 
bert L. Osgood has patiently reviewed the manuscript 
and made valuable suggestions. The author desires also 
to acknowledge the co-operation of Mr. Victor Hugo 
Paltsits, Keeper of the Manuscripts of the New York 
Public Library, of Robert H. Kelby, Librarian of the 
New York Historical Society, of Dr. Austin B. Keep, 
and of Professors Charles A. Beard, Carlton J. H. Hayes, 
David S. Muzzey and Robert Livingston Schuyler, of 
whose counsel he has frequently availed himself. Not- 
withstanding this generous aid, he is aware that many 
imperfections still remain. 

Dixon Ryan Fox. 

Columbia University, May, 1917. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

The Few, the Rich, and the Well Born 

The revolution of 1801 turns out the governing class l 

The pessimism of the leaders . • • . . . . 3 

" A spirit of innovation counteracts the best tendency of regular habits ". 7 

Hamilton, Jay, King and Morris 8 

The elements of party strength in New York city 11 

The lawyers (the Tories and the wealthy Whigs) 11 

The merchants and bankers 18 

The Episcopal Church and Columbia College , . . . 25 

CHAPTER II 
The Country-Sidk 

The Dutch aristocrats of the upper Hudson valley are finally joined, in spite 

of prejudice, by the New England immigrants 31 

The whaling port of Hudson 39 

The Columbia Junto 40 

Business in Poughkeepsie 46 

Free-thinking Newburgh 47 

The Great West of New York 48 

Three classes of frontiersmen 49 

Village aristocracies ^I 

Vermonters in the north • 52 

The meaning of the revolution 54 

The bitterness of party strife at the opening of the century 56 

CHAPTER III 
Rulers Deposed 

Aaron Burr, condottiere 57 

A war of pamphlets 58 

The " httle band " and «' the famihes " 60 

The scurrilous campaign of 1804 61 

The Federalists get a bank charter and form a shamefaced union with the 

"Quids" 69 

" Demagogue Clinton & Co. vs. Demagogue Lewis & Co." 70 

vii 



viii TABLE OF CONTENTS 

TKCM. 

The Irish rail at Rufus King and YOte for Clinton's men 75 

The American ticket of 1807 80 

Mr. Jay's disgust at hesitating leadership 82 

CHAPTER IV 
Nkw Methods and a Victory 

Old castes and new philosophy 84 

General Hamilton's suggestion of a Christian Constitutional Society .... 87 

The Federalists go in for fraternity 88 

The Washington Benevolent Society 89 

Rules and professions 9° 

Growth and opposition 9* 

The solemn ceremonies 9^ 

Federalist oratory 93 

Washington Halls 95 

The code of pageantry 96 

Effective service 99 

The first party •' convention " 100 

The embargo in New York 102 

The taint of Toryism • 104 

The victory of 1809 »09 

•' Piatt, Commerce and the Constitution " 114 

Retrospect "6 

CHAPTER V 
Landholders' Principles 
The wealthy Federalists speculate in the wild lands of the state, and in con- 
sequence oppose a tax on real property 1 20 

The spread of Federalism from the city 122 

The land agents 128 

The ambitious lawyers 129 

The younger sons ^3° 

The Episcopal Church »37 

The power of the squires through intimidation of their tenants and grants of 

" Fagot holdings " '39 

The encouragement of landowners to the building of canals, an element in 

making possible the coalition of the Federalists with Clinton 148 

CHAPTER VI 
Mr. Madison's War 

" Abimelech Coody " 160 

The riotous commencement of 181 1 163 

Mayor Clinton's •« detestation of mobocracy " 164 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ix 

PACK 

He loses some old friends and gains some new 165 

Mr. Clinton as a peace-war candidate in 181 2 165 

General Van Rensselaer is honored with the leadership of a forlorn hope. . 172 

Senator Rufus King 173 

Middle-way Federalism successful in New York in 1813 174 

Free speech in war time 178 

Praising the enemy 179 

"The guardians of our commerce " 181 

Home defence 183 

Capitalizing discontent 185 

The magic name of Rufus King does not charm Democrats in 1816 .... 191 

He admits himself a visionary man 192 

CHAPTER Vn 

CuNTON, Divider of Parties 

Mr. Clinton becomes governor by the force of an idea 194 

A statesman-like address attracts the lovers of strong government 197 

His " cold, repulsive manner," his nepotism, and his pedantry 200 

"The Coodies" 203 

Federalists and patronage 206 

Clinton vs. King 207 

A literary enterprise : the New YorA American 209 

A Mart ling Man, or Says I to Myself, How is this 213 

The Bucktail Bard% 215 

Clintonian corruption 2i6 

The learned societies 218 

<< Epaminondas " 219 

King's sudden popularity 220 

The " High minded Federalists " 222 

The Columbia Junto in disgrace 226 

A broken party 228 

CHAPTER Vni 

Property or People? 

The Constitution of 1777 is outgrown, but the Bucktails, pressing for reform, 

encounter Governor Clinton's opposition 229 

The Council of Revision attempts to save its life 235 

Universal suffrage is seriously proposed 237 

The delegates 239 

The Council of Revision is destroyed and the veto given to the Governor. . 244 

Appointive offices become elective 246 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS 

TACW. 

The governor the people's minister 247 

The suffrage is the subject of a fierce debate 248 

The "sacred turf" 256 

Federalist merchants and landlords fear manufacturers 257 

The freehold qualification as a stimulus to thrift 259 

The menace of the city mob 261 

Property loses its constitutional privilege 263 

The aristocrats in ermine are driven from the bench 264 

A gerrymander 266 

CHAPTER IX 

Old Comrades and New Banners 

•• Remnante of royalty " are brushed away 27 1 

Rivalry in praising the people 273 

Federalists are not wrelcomed as Republicans 274 

The philosophy of parties 276 

Governor Yates mistakes an uncontested election for the millennium . . . 280 

The Albany regency 281 

The party with a program, and the party with a creed 285 

The presidential campaign of 1824 286 

The People's Party hold a convention 290 

A candidate is thrust upon them 292 

Qinton routs " King Caucus " 298 

The Solidarity of Federalists 299 

Thurlow Weed shows himself a clever man 300 

CHAPTER X 

Manufacturing Becomes Respectable 

New York becomes the Empire State 302 

The astonishing growth of towns along the water route from New York to 

Buflalo 303 

Business men extoU the enterprising Clinton . 3^5 

A lobby party engages in " log rolling " 3°? 

John Quincy Adams seeks to make the nation rich and wise 308 

Clinton suspected by the busmess men 3'^ 

He fails to deliver his party to General Jackson 314 

Van Buren makes haste slowly in recommending Jackson 317 

Steam and steel and politics 3'^ 

Some Federalists find manufacturers are on the right side 322 

State aid for mills 3^4 

Staple farmers look for a home market 3^5 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xi 

CHAPTER XI '*** 

Political Distraction 

The Federalists at first condemn protection 327 

But are allured by manufacturing profits ... 329 

The Democrats are non-committal 331 

They defer to Virginia 333 

Sectionalism in the state-road controversy 334 

The ianatical enthusiasm of anti-masonry 337 

Uncertainty as to Clinton 343 

His death makes possible clearer party lines 344 

He was deficient as a politician 345 

But a statesman 346 

The campaign of 1828 347 

CHAPTER Xn 

Tom, Dick and Harry Take a Hand 

The workingmen's demands 352 

They form a party 355 

Internal quarrels 356 

The wage argument for protection 358 

The " Siamese-twin scheme " of National Republicans and Anti-Masons. . 360 

Senator Marcy wins 363 

The United States Bank 364 

The usefulness of Thurlow Weed 365 

The Whig Party 366 

Nativism 37 r 

The Whig attitude toward Abolitionists 378 

CHAPTER XIII 

Two Views of Vested Rights 

The shrine of true democrats . . 381 

The turpitude of bankers 382 

I^oco Focos 383 

Labor as a radical faction of the Tammany Society 386 

Anti-clericalism 388 

Strikes ^90 

Fusion of the discontented in 1836 392 

The literature of protest 395 

The Democratic party " converted " in the days of panic 397 

The Conservatives 39S 



xii TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PACE 

Whig Yictories 402 

The " forty-million-dollar party " 403 

Changing sentiment on internal improvements 405 

CHAPTER XIV 

Who Were the Whigs? 

Mr. Webster defines the issues for 1840 409 

Whigs deprecate the cry of aristocracy 411 

Van Buren, the sybarite 4I2 

Singing for a ploughman President 4^3 

American society adrift without an aristocracy 416 

Why the class war did not come 4^8 

The core of Federalism 420 

Other constituent elements of the Whig party 422 

The influence of personality 423 

The west 424 

The merchants 425 

Whigs read expensiye newspapers • 426 

The witness of statistics 43° 

Anti-rent riots • 437 

Emerson on parties 439 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



John Jay Frontispiece 

By Gilbert Stuart ; in Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Thurlow Weed Frontispiece 

By Chester Harding ; by permission of William Barnes, Esq. 

Opposite page 

Elisha Williams 41 

Artist unknown; reproduced from P. F. Miller's Group of Great 
Lawyers of Columbia County (N. Y., 1908) 

GULIAN C. VeRPLANCK 89 

By John Wesley Jarvis; owned by Miss Eleanor Fitr Gerald, New 
York City 

DeWitt Clinton 165 

By S. F. B. Morse ; in Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Stephen Van Rensselaer 323 

Artist unknown ; reproduced from K. S. Baxter, A Godchild »f IVask- 
ington (N. Y., 1897) 

WiLUAM H. Seward 371 

From old print 

James Kent 423 

By Rembrandt Peak ; owned by the Kent family, Tuxedo Park 

xiii 



CHAPTER I 
The Few, the Rich^ and the Well Born 

"We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists" — ^the 
word of peace was spoken by the bland philosopher of 
Monticello, as he took the chair of state in the spring of 
1 80 1. But as it issued from the presses of the great towns 
to the north, it was not a soothing word; it carried no as- 
surance to the merchants and ship-masters; to them it 
heralded a peace, not of reconciliation, but of surrender 
that was bitter in its hopelessness. They had scarce need 
to read through Jefferson's inaugural to know that agri- 
culture was to be a chief concern of his administration and 
that commerce would gain attention only as its handmaid.^ 
To these Federalists the removal of the seat of government 
to the Potomac was but the outward sign that the 
nation's center of gravity had been shifted toward the 
south, leaving them in their remoteness a benumbing sense 
that henceforth their portion was to be neglect. The new 
leader had declared that great cities were but sores on the 
body politic.' and he had indicated to his friends that were 
he to indulge his own desire, he would wish these states 
"to practice neither commerce nor navigation, but to stand 
with respect to Europe precisely on the footing of China." ' 

1 J. D. iRichardson, Messages and Palters of tlie Presidents (Wash- 
ington. 1899), vol. i. pp. 322-323. 

-J. P. Foley. The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia (N. Y., 1900). pp. 141-142. 

•'^ Jefferson to Count Van Hogendorp, Paris, 1785, Jefferson's Writings 
(Ford edition), vol. iv. p. 104. 

I 



2 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Ship-yards and counting-houses were no longer likely ob- 
jects of the nation's patronage; in the vanity of ignorance, 
it seemed, wealth and enterprise in trade were fallen into 
disrepute. 

But the troubles that seemed imminent were still more 
deeply based. The government which Federalists had 
nursed to robust promise, had, by this sad caprice of fate, 
been handed over to the ungentle stewardship of its no- 
torious foes. It might now be reasonably expected that the 
official theory of the United States would be that of the 
Kentucky resolutions, whose author was exalted to the high- 
est place. This was the man who had complained of using 
force to curb the Whiskey Insurrection,^ and had said of 
Shays's exploits in western Massachusetts : " God forbid that 
we should ever be tvvcnty years without such a rebellion." 
Here was a chief magistrate whose loud simplicity seemed 
calculated to neglect all canons of decorum. What was to 
become of decency and order under such a man? Had the 
Federalist been written all in vain? Were those achieve- 
ments so dearly wrought by Washington and Hamilton to 
be tumbled into an ungrateful memorj-^ and this nation fall 
without a protest, simply that a full experiment be given 
to this fatal doctrine of democracy? 

When the word was brought to Hamilton, in the spring 
of 1800. that the legislature of New York would be "Anti- 
Federal" and thus the vote of this great state make in- 
evitable the choice of Jefferson,^ he wrote to Governor Jay 

* Jefferson to James Madison, May 1793, Writings (Ford), vol. vi, 
p. 261, and December 1794, ibid., p. 518; to James Monroe, May 1795, 
ibid., vol. vii, p. 16. 

* Jefferson to W. S. Smith, 1787, ibid., vol. iv, p. 467. 

'The presidential electors in New York were chosen by the two 
houses of the legislature until after the election of 1824-1825; see J. D. 
Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York 
(Albany, 1842 et seq.), vol. ii, p. 154 et seq. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN 3 

that the "scruples of delicacy and propriety . . . ought not 
to hinder the taking of a legal and constitutional step to 
prevent an atheist in religion and a fanatic in politics, from 
getting possession of the helm of state," ' and advised the 
governor forthwith to call a special session of the old Fed- 
eralist legislature to pass a law which, by redistricting the 
state, would probably insure a Federalist triumph for New 
York and thereby for the nation. General Schuyler had 
likewise urged this trick and assured the governor that 

your friends will justify it as the only way to save a nation 
from more disasters, which it may and probably will experience 
from the mis-rule of a Man who has given such strong evi- 
dence that he was opposed to the salutary Measures of those 
who have been heretofore at the helm, and who is in fact per- 
vaded with the mad French philosophy.- 

There were others who joined in this desperate advice,' 
but Jay's good sense withstood more firmly the behests of 
anger and disgust; he refused thus to conspire to defeat the 
people's will and rejected this proposal for "party purposes, 
which I think it would not become me to adopt." * That 
such an expedient could have been seriously talked of by 
the responsible leaders of the party, shows how critical 
they thought the juncture in our national affairs. Even 
Jay looked forvv-ard to a dismal fate for this people, whoin 

» Hamilton to Jay, May 7, 1800, The Works of Alexander Hamilton 
(Lodge edition, N. Y., 1886), vol. viii, p. 549. 

^ Philip Schuyler to Jay, May 7. 1800, Correspondence and Public 
Papers of John Jay (Johnston edition, N. Y., 1893), vol. iv, p. 273. 
General Schuyler feared that Jefferson would embroil the United 
States in a war with Great Britain. 

' Schuyler mentions John Marshall as one, ibid., loc. cit. 
*Jay Correspondence, vol. iv, p. 272. Lodge's note in Hamilton's 
Writings, vol. vii, p. 551, and D. S. Alexander, A Political History of 
the State of New York (N. Y., 1906-1909), vol. i. p. 92. Both quote 
this passage inaccurately. 



4 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

he saw "permitting their happiness to be put in jeopardy 
by the worst passions, iiitiamed and directed by the most 
reprehensible means." Whether all the ills that threatened 
could be prevented no man could prophesy, but it was cer- 
tainly a most unhappy fact that the Federalists themselves 
did not act together to ward them off. "If the sound and 
leading friends of their country," he wrote, "could concur 
in opinion as to men and measures, their efforts would 
probably be successful, but unfortunately there is too little 
unanimity in many points, and the want of it exposes us to 
the hazard of many evils." ^ 

The new legislature, meeting in November, justified the 
Federalists' fears. An electoral ticket had been fashioned 
which drew support from every' faction that had formed 
among Republicans,' and they acted as a whole, while 
agreeing in their caucus with like unanimity to support 
George Clinton as their candidate for governor.^ The 
l-'ederalists placed in nomination the Patroon. Stephen 
Van Rensselaer, the social leader of the state,* a dignified 
and knightly figure, and a public servant of honorable 
reputation."' The state campaign of April, 1801, was vig- 
orously fought, but the Federalists could make no headway 
against the spirit of the times ; it was destined that John 
Jay was to be remembered as the last governor of his party 

'Jay to Theophilus Parsons, July i, 1800. Jay Correspondence, vol. 
iv, p. 274. 

'J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, pp. I3.S-I37. Though ordin- 
arily the legislature met in January, it was called in "presidential years" 
for November. 

* Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, the candidate for lieutenant-governor, was 
probably the only man of his name to be found in the Anti-Federal. 
or as it was now called, RepuWican party. 

*D. D. Barnard, Discourse on Steplien Van Rensselaer (pamphlet. 
Albany, 1839). 

^A''. Y. Ciznl List, 1889, p. 742. He was then serving as lieutenant- 
governor. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN - 

in New York. After an earnest effort to save appointments 
for his partisans.^ he laid down forever the cares and dig- 
nities of office. There were no hymns of hope as the 
distinguished leaders in New York gathered at the banquet 
board to sound his praises; it was a sad farewell, not alone 
to the beloved governor, but likewise to the exercise of 
ix>wer and control by their "party of the talents," and as 
they believed, to the prosperity which such care insured. - 

Now in 1801, as later, one hears in their pronounce- 
ments a constant minor undertone of deep discouragement ; 
the structure of society seemed suddenly turned upside 
down, with what result no one could foretell. 

In New York the rights & the property of the city and state 
are subject to the vice and folly and poverty of the society 
[wrote Fisher Ames to Rufus King, in London]. We are 
now in the Roland & Condorcet act of our Comedy— Whether 
we go on to the Danton and Robespierre acts depends on time 

'This controversy was with the majority of the Council of Appoint- 
ment, which under the Constitution of 1777, consisted of one senator 
from each of the four great districts of the state, chosen by the 
assembly and under the presidency of the governor. This officer by 
the prescription was to appoint all officers, who were not elected, " with 
the advice and consent of said council" (Article xxiii). The majority 
in the winter of 1801 were Republicans, and claimed that any member 
had a concurrent right of nomination with the governor, a contention 
which Jay would not allow. The deadlock which resulted from this 
opposition was the principal cause of the Convention of 1801, which 
in a constructive amendment to the constitution supported the opinion 
of the majority of the Council. See H. L. McBain, " DeWitt Clinton 
and the Origin of the Spoils System in New York" (Columbia Uni- 
versity Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, vol. xxviii, 
no. i), and Charles Z. Lincoln, The Constitutional History of New 
York (Rochester, 1906), vol. i, pp. 56, 178, 191, 531, 600-602, 610-611. 

^Robert Troup to Rufus King, May 27, 1801, The Life and Corres- 
pondence of Rufus King (Charles R. King, editor, N. Y., 1894-1900), 
vol. iii, p. 458. Inasmuch as letters in this work, as well as in the 
Jay Correspondence, are arranged in chronological order, this source 
will be frequently cited by date only. 



6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

and accident and not on the discernment energy or force of 
the Feds.^ 

Just as six years before, the Federalists had cleansed 
the government of most of those who stood with 
Clinton, so now, by revolution, the Federalists found 
themselves proscribed.- "In this state," wrote Robert 
Troup, "all power and all the offices are also engrossed by 
the Democrats." " Seriously to contemplate democracy as a 
kind of government was absurd, wrote Gouverneur Morris 
in 1801, " for I hold that it is no government at all, 
but, in fact, the death or dissolution of other systems, or 
the passage from one kind of government to another." * 
Soont. it might well be, as Hamilton predicted, we should 
have a despotism, " for a courtier and a demagogue differ 
only in forms, which, like clothes, are put on and off as 
suits the occasion." ^ 

In the speech and correspondence of the Federalists there 
recurs the prediction of the final failure of the American 
experiment, to end in no one knew what fonn of govern- 
ment. They seemed sorrow^ fully certain of their destiny to 
outlive the nation they had labored earnestly to build. " Old 
Gates used to tell me in 1776," wrote Judge Peters to John 
Jay, " that if the bantling Independence lived one year, it 
would last to the age of Methusaleh. Yet we have lived to 
see it in its dotage, with all the maladies and imbecilities of 

'Fisher Ames to Rufus King, May 27, 1801, Kmg Correspondence. 

^K. L. McBain, op. cit., successfully combats the claim advanced by 
Schouler, Henry Adams and others, that the spoils system was invented 
in 1801 by De Witt Clinton and his Council of Appointment, pointing 
out that the practice vi'as inherited from the Jay administration. 

'R. Troup to King, April 9, 1802, King Correspondence. 
* Anne C. Morris, The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris 
(N. Y., 1888), vol. ii. p. 469- 

* Ibid., p. 475. " Democracy is the first step toward despotism," said 
the New York Spectator, Alarch 5, 1804. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN y 

extreme old age." ' Society itself was showing symptoms of 
decay; the unnatural genius of equality was sapping the 
foundations of all that had been built in the knowledge 
and the virtue of the past.' Such influences were admitted 
through a reckless zeal for novelty which brought on all 
the troubles. " Among the evils, which periodically flourish 
amongst mankind," remarked an essayist, " is a spirit of 
innovation, which has lately gained strength in our borders, 
and now counteracts the best tendency of regular habits." " 
Jay and King might counsel firm resistance to this innova- 
tion,* but it seemed sadly clear to many honest Federalists 
that "■ Reason, common sense, talents and virtue, cannot 
stand before democracy. Like a resistless flood, it sweeps 
all away ; and it has, probably, not yet spent its force." ^ 
The leading editorial of the New York Commercial Ad- 
vertiser, on New^ Year's Day of 1801, concluded: 

We have no grounds to felicitate ourselves on advancing a 
single step in the theory or practice of government within two 
thousand years. The opinion that we have advanced, is de- 
rived from our pride, founded on our ignorance — an opinion 
that is a burlesk on an education in pretended science, and our 
vanity.® 

As one reads these jeremiads of pessimism, no doubt of 
their sincerity intrudes to break their force. Here was a 

' Judge Peters to Jay, July 9. 1808, Jay Correspondence. 

* Rufus King to Noah Webster, June 30, 1807. King Correspondence. 

^ N. Y. Spectator, April 21, 1806, " Speculations of Decius," published 
serially. 

*Jay to Richard Hatfield, November 8, 1800, Jay Correspondence, 
and Rufus King to Christopher Gore, March 21, 1815, King 
Correspondence. 

* " Candidus " in N. Y. Spectator, January 18, 1804. 

^ See also the Rev. Samuel Osgood, New York in the Nineteenth 
Century, a discourse before the New York Historical Society (N. Y., 
1867), pp. 14-15. 



8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

company of gentlemen accustomed to the power and direc- 
tion of the government, suddenly reduced to private station 
and the consciousness of unimportance ; but they obviously 
spoke from larger motives than those of personal resent- 
ment. They believed themselves the spokesmen of a class 
as indisputably fit to rule a state as those guardians to 
whom Plato entrusted his Republic. One turns with interest 
to inquire who made up this class thus brought down by 
the leveling wave of 1801. 

For the most part in New York, since the adoption of 
the state constitution in 1777, the Federalist party had 
controlled the state,^ and the Federalist party had been 
itself controlled from New York city.- Here lived the 
brilliant leader, Alexander Hamilton, who not only had 
done most to formulate the party's principles and to set 
forth its political philosophy, but had been its foremost 
champion on the public platform, its chief exponent in ad- 
ministration and the most effective organizer of its victories. 
In 1 80 1 he had been for several years in private life and, 
by untiring exertion, had built up a practice at the bar 
which brought in a yearly income of some fifteen thousand 
dollars,* yet he was still regarded as the chief directing 
mind of the party he had founded. The "lullabies" of the 
new President were but added irritation to his drooping 
spirit. " Perhaps no man in the United States has sacrificed 
or done more for the present Constitution than myself, and 
contrary to all my anticipation of its fate, as you know 

'J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, p. 162. 

2 O. G. Libby, " The Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the 
Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution" (Wisconsin Studies in 
History, Economics and Political Science, vol. i. Madison, 1897), P- 18; 
C. A. Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution (N. Y., 
1913), p. 268 et seq., and H. L. McBain, DeWitt Clinton and the 
Spoils System, p. 105. 

*H,.C. Lodge, Alexander Hamilton, Boston, 1882, pp. 234-235; D. S. 
Alexander, Political History of the State of New York, vol. i, p. 132. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN c) 

from the very beginning, I am still laboring to prop the 
frail and worthless fabric." ^ 

Next in dignity among these New York Federalists was 
Governor Jay, now retiring to the country home that he 
had built at Bedford, studying the science of the soil from 
Columella to Sir John Sinclair and busying himself with 
new breeds of stock and new varieties of melons." Yet his 
absence from the forum seemed almost to enhance the 
value of his counsel and he was to be frequently consulted 
as a grand old man acquainted with the purposes of the 
founders of the government, and a stalwart foe to all that 
savored of democracy. " It is not a new remark," he wrote 
to Canon Wilberforce, " that those who own the country 
are the most fit persons to participate in the government 
of it. This remark, with certain restrictions and excep- 
tions, has force in it; and applies both to the elected and 
to the elector, though with most force to the former." * 
Jay seemed to Federalists a very proper governor ; the onlj'^ 
vice for which he had been seriously criticized by his op- 
ponents, that of prodigality, was in their theory of politics 
almost a virtue.^ 

Scarcely less important in the early days of the new 
government was Rufus King. In 1801 he was still minister 
to England, but long surviving other leaders, he was to 
become the foremost of his party in the state and in the 

'Hamilton to G. Morris, February 27, 1802, Works (Lodge), vol. 
viii, p. 591 ; and to C. C. Pinckney, December 29, 1802, ibid., p. 606. 

*Jay to Judge Peters, July 24, 1809, and March 14, 1815, Jay 
Correspondence; Jay to .Sir John Sinclair, December 16, 1800 and 
August 8, 1816, ibid.; Robert Bolton, History of the County of West- 
chester (N. Y., 1848), vol. ii, pp. 88-91 ; J. G. Wilson, Memorial History 
of the City of New York (N. Y., 1893), vol. iii, p. 156. 

*Jay to Judge Peters, July 24, 1809, and to William Wilberforce, 
October 25, 1810, Jay Correspondence. 

* Alexander Hamilton, Address to the Electors, pamphlet, (N. Y., 
1801), pp. 19-20. 



lO ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

nation, throughout the first quarter of the century. Four 
times elected to the Senate of the United States/ he 
represented not alone the great state of New York, but 
likewise the old caste of gentlemen. A man of wealth and 
family,- the " high model of courtly refinement," appearing 
always to the last in the small-clothes and silk stockings of 
the days of Washington, he had in manner a formal cour- 
tesy, and something of hauteur and pride, the bearing of a 
true aristocrat.^ As to other Federalists of the older school, 
so to him the ideal statesman was the leader of measures 
and not the leader of men, administering a government 
large in power, respected among nations and liberally benev- 
olent in purpose.* 'With Hamilton devoted to the law and 
money-making, and Jay in deep retirement, the call went 
forth to King, in London, to hasten home to lead the party 
in New York, a leadership which, once assumed, remained 
long undisputed.^ Like Hamilton and Jay, even after 
death he lived on in his sons, to aid in leading later parties 
in New York, the Whig and the Republican.** 

' A''. Y. Civil List, 1882, p. 446. 

^ He was, among other things, interested in government securities, 
as is evidenced in the letter to his broker Nicholas Low, June 15, 1802. 
Life and Correspondence of Ruftis King, vol. iv, p. 140. See also ibid., 
vol. i, p. 132; and C. A. Beard, Economic Interpretation of the Con- 
stitution (N. Y., 1913), pp. 1 18-120. 

' See the description by T. H. Benton, in his Thirty Years View 
(N. Y., 1886), pp. 57-58, and King Correspondence, quoting from 
Faux's Travels, vol. vi, p. 670 et seq. 

*Winiam Sullivan, Public Men of the Revolution (Philadelphia, 1847), 
p. 59. For personal description, see in Delaplaine's Repository (Phila- 
delphia, 1815 et seq.), the article by WiHiam Coleman (Coleman to 
King, February 5, 1817, King Correspondence), and in Homes of 
American Statesmen (N. Y., 1859), the sketch of King Park by Charles 
King. 

* Robert Troup to King, May 6, 1802, King Correspondence. 

•Article on John A. King in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Bio- 
graphy, James A. Hamilton, Reminiscences (N. Y., 1869), p. 314, and 
A''. Y. Tribune, November 6, 1846. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN j j 

The last member of this famous four was Gouveriieur 
Morris, who likewise had been distinguished in the effort 
to establish and to carry out the principles of an aristocratic 
government, somewhat moderated and toned down to fit 
conditions in America. It requires no rehearsal here to 
call to mind the theories of this bluff and testy squire. In 
his opinion " there never was, and never will be a civilized 
Society without an Aristocracy," ^ and aristocracy found 
no more admired exemplar than Morris in his generous serv- 
ice for the public good. In 1801 he was to serve two years 
more as senator in Washington," then was to give his 
energies as propagandist for the internal improvement of 
the state. As public orator and adviser of the party, he was 
to continue in importance for fifteen years until his death. 

These statesmen — Hamilton. Jay, King and Morris, were 
the models after which the younger generation of Feder- 
alists might seek to pattern their social and political careers ; 
but such lordly gentlemen could not be counted on in New 
York city to do the hum-drum arduous work of ward 
meetings and inspection at the polls. Turning from the 
great apostles of Federalism to take note of lesser leaders, 
we do not, however, reach outside the same exclusive and 
aristocratic class. 

The bar of New A^ork city that argued cases in the old 
court house on Broad Street at the turning of the century 
numbered scarcely a hundred.* It was a small company, 
indeed, compared with the tens of thousands that crowd 
the enonnous hives that now weigh down those almost 

^ Max Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention (New Haven, 
1911), vol. 1, p. 545. 

^N. Y. Civil List, 1882, p. 446. 

=* C. H. Hunt, Life of Edward Livingston (N. Y., 1863), p. 48; T. E. V. 
Smith, The City of New York in the Year of Washington's Inaugura- 
tion (N. Y., 1889), p. 61; and C. H. Truax, History of the Bench and 
Bar of Nezv York (N. Y., 1897), vol. i, p. 103. 



12 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

priceless acres; but within it there were men of gifts and 
power, some black-letter lawyers skilled in the confusing 
mazes of the common law and some who grasped the larger 
principles of polity and rose to high distinction in the field 
of jurisprudence. Of all these, the leaders, excepting the 
greater Li\. '^stons. who were often absent from the city, 
and the erratic Aaron Burr, were of the Federalist party, 
and, indeed, not a few had evidenced their conservative 
regard for the old king's law by remaining king's men 
throughout the War of Independence. Many Tories in their 
anxiety that no experiment should interrupt George Clinton's 
policy of easy tolerance, had in 'eighty-seven and 'eighty- 
eight taken ground against the national constitution ; but 
when their Anti-Federalist associates shouted applause of 
Robespierre, " degenerated into democrats " and, for a 
season, lost the ascendancy in the state, the old Tories came 
to the conclusion that no good could come from such a 
party and quietly came over to the safer company of Mr. 
Jay. Such was the course that brought to the Federalist 
ranks the Samuel Joneses, father and son, both distingiiished 
jurists.^ 

One who at first was burdened with the record of a loy- 
alist was Richard Harison,^ the son of a Tory councillor who 

*W. A. Duer, Reminiscences of an Old New Yorker (N. Y. 1867), 
p. 23. This interesting book is mad'C up of a series of letters signed 
" Peregrine Mindful," first printed in the New York American Mail 
during the summer of 1847. The elder Mr. Jones was soon appointed 
comptroller of the state by Governor Jay when that office was created 
(N. Y. Civil List, 1882, p. 160). The son served three terms in the 
assembly as a Federalist (ibid., pp. 300-301) after several unsuccessful 
attempts at election (N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 21, 1806). 
He was in 1826 appointed chancellor, in which office, with his fairness 
and his learning he ably carried on the traditions established by James 
Kent. J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 213. 

^E. B. O'Callaghan, "Biographical Sketch of Francis Harison," N. Y. 
Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. ix, pp. 49-51. This article 
notices the descendants of the subject; N. Y. Civil List, 1881, p. 24a 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN 13 

had fled to England; but he had regained the pubHc 
favor by his kindness and urbanity, spiced just frequently 
enough with dashes of sharp wit. When Washington ap- 
pointed him a federal district attorney, there had been 
some who questioned the propriety of calling to ofiicial 
station one who, however sound in law a'" ' ocholarship, 
had given comfort to the enemy. But the appointment was 
defended on the very ground that his Toryism had been so 
notorious. It was thought necessary that, if all of this 
class were to be won to the support of the new government, 
the Federalist party must evince a liberality which might 
equal that of Governor Clinton, who. with the coming of the 
peace in 1783, had foreborne to execute those drastic laws 
which would have banished Loyalists tO' Nova Scotia.^ But 
Harison was well fitted in many other ways to contribute 
to the prestige of the party, and celebrated no less for his 
piety and public spirit than for his strong and constant 
loyalty to the principles of Federalism, he was often called 
upon to make the statement of the party faith in public 
meeting." 

The eloquent Josiah Ogden Hoffman, who long survived 
the others of this company, adding the wisdom of a rich 
experience to the councils of the Whigs three decades later, 
had also in the War of Independence "lived within the 
lines." as the phrase described those loyal to King George.^ 
Although a lawyer of remarkable astuteness, like others of 
this Federalist gentry, he was a man of fashion, and, while 
deciding cases as recorder of the city, was likewise a court 
of last resort in the quiddities of minuets and precedence at 

* W. A. Duer, o/j. cit., p. 25. 

■^Morgan Dix, The Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New 
York (N. Y., 1898-1906). vol. iii, p. 431; Memorial of St. Mark's 
Church in the Boxvery (N. Y., 1899) ; N. Y. Evening Post. March 
26, 1807. 

* Robert Troup to Rufus King, April 4, 180Q. King Corrcst>ondence. 



14 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



table/ No less adroit than energetic, and always vehement 
and voluble, this young beau had early won the lead of the 
state assembly and served as Jay's attorney-general until the 
hecatomb of office-holders in i8oi.' The partner of Hoff- 
man in the practice of the law w-as a somewhat graver 
person, Cadwallader D. Golden, whom the Federalist 
Council of Appointment had selected for the state's attorney 
for the counties neighboring New York." He also came 
of stock distinguished for its loyalty to the king, for he was 
the grandson of that lieutenant governor who, when thrown 
into the Ulster jail, desired to be remembered as one who 
had opposed "independency with all his might, and wished 
to the Lord that his name might be entered on record as 
opposed to that matter and be handed down to the latest 
posterity." * With the firmness of this venerable grandsire 
he had inherited certain of his scientific sympathies which 
led him later to the cause of Clinton ; but he ranged himself 
no less wnth others of the bar, to carry on the conservative 
tradition of the old official class. ^ 

Not all the Federalist lawyers were of Tory families. 
Colonel Robert Troup, the close associate of the great lead- 
ers,*^ is a fair example of those cautious patriots who went 

^ M. A. Hamm, Famous Families of New York (N. Y., 1902), vol. 
i, pp. 177-178. 

*J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, pp. 80-81. 

^N. y. Civil List, 1889, p. 506. 

*A. M. Keys, Cadivalladcr Colden (N. Y., 1906), pp. 358-369; Lorenzo 
Sabine, Biographical Sketches of the Loyalists of the Atnerican Revo- 
lution With an Historical Essay (Boston, 1864), vol. i, pp. 328-330; A. C. 
Flick, Loyalisni in Nezv York During the American Revolution (N. Y., 
1901), pp. 19, 212. 

^ See his many letters in the DeWitt Clinton Mss, 1810 ct seq.; A. C. 
Flick, op. cit. He was so fair a man, however, that he sometimes won 
the support of Tammany Hall. 

*Jay to Hamilton, August 30, 1798, Jay Correspondence; Troup to 
Rufus King, King Correspondence, vol. iv, pp. 27, 102, 120, 135, etc.; 
L. Sabine, Loyalists, vol. i, p. 367. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN j 5 

the middle course with Hamilton. He was, like almost all 
his friends, a zealous churchman,^ a gentleman in tastes 
and manners, and a consen^ative in politics, with small 
enthusiasm for the spirit of republican institutions." 
Though called to service by the Federal government as the 
first district judge in New York state ^ he soon forsook 
the ermine for the fat fees of the bar, and later settled into a 
still more lucrative activity as agent for the Pulteney estate 
in the Seneca region.* There he lived for many years, rich 
and respected, and, though not in public station, an impor- 
tant influence for Federalism in the West.^ He served his 
clients not only in the office at Geneva, but perhaps with 
more effect in the lobbies of the legislature. Here he spent 
a good part of his time, and. thoroughly acquainted with 
the customs of the capital, a master of the friendly hint 
and suave suggestion, he shrewdly helped or hindered legis- 
lation that might bear upon his special interest.** He was not 
the last distinguished lawyer thus to spend a winter month 
in Albany. 

Colonel Richard Varick, who had been recorder and then 
mayor for a dozen years, until swept out in the overturning, 
was another leading Federalist in his profession.'' Austere 

'Troup to Bishop Hobart. May 23, 1827, Hobart Correspondence in 
Morgan Dix, Trinity Church, vol. iv, p. 44. 

2 In his letter to King, June 6, 1802, King Correspondence, he speaks 
of "those who do not admire (and I confess myself among the num- 
ber) the republican system." 

*He had given valuable help in the propaganda for the Constitution, 
as a member of the Federal committee of correspondence, J. D. Ham- 
mond, Political History, vol. i, p. 39. 

*\V. A. Duer, Reminiscences, p. 26. 

* For example his name headed the nomination for presidential electors 
in 1808, N. y. Assembly Journal, 1808. 

'^^ Troup to Rufus King, March 12, 1807, etc., King Correspondence. 
'N. V. Civil List, 1882, p. 415. 



l6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

and lofty in his manner/ his tall tigure striking in its 
closely fitting broadcloth breeches, silver-buttoned coat 
and spotless stock," renowned no less for his philanthropies ' 
than for the entertainments in the ball-room of his house 
on Broadway,^ he sustained the dignity of the old Federali^)t 
directorate and added to the prestige of his class. 

The erudite, sententious Egbert Benson " was one whose 
early Federalism had brought about his choice as delegate, 
with Hamilton, to the conference at Annapolis in 1786." 
He now saw the long-awaited judgeship on the Federal 
bench snatched away by Jefferson's refusal to confirm his 
predecessor's midnight appointees. ' Benson served his party 
in the state in many offices and, in the trying days of 1813, 
was to stand with those in Congress who poured out indigna- 

' C H. Hunt, Life of Edward Livingston, p. 51. 

-His portrait by Henry Inman may be seen at No. 6 Bible House. 
New York City, in the rooms of the American Bible Society, of which 
he was a founder and supporter. 

*W. A. Duer, Reminiscences, p. 29; J. S. Schuyler, Institution of the 
Society of the Cincinnati . . . in Nezv York City (N. Y., 1886), p. 533- 

* Longworth's American Almanac, New York Register, etc. (N. Y., 
1800), p. 362; Walter Barrett (John A. Scoville) The Old Merchants 
of New York City (N. Y., 1863), vol. i, p. 215. This quaint, gossipy 
miscellany was printed originally, in part, in the columns of the New 
York Leader about the beginning of the Civil War. The papers were 
collected and republished with additions in book form in 1863 and 
several subsequent editions (see foreword to vol. H, edition of 1885). 
Other chapters were added, published and republished until the stand- 
ard edition of live volumes was issued in 1885. It is an invaluable 
work of reference, though, naturally, in its comments upon hundreds 
of old merchants it is not entirely free from inaccuracies. 

*C. H. Hunt, Life of Edivard Livingston, p. 52. 

* See his account of this mission given in an address before the New- 
York Historical Society of which he was the first president, quoted 
in extenso by A. B. Street, The Council of Revision of the State of 
New York (Albany, 1859), PP- 183-184, note. 

•Troup to 'Rufus King, April 9, 1802, King Correspondence. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN ly 

tioii and contempt upon " Mr. ^Madison's war." ' He, too. 
was a convinced aristocrat who believed that government 
could best be carried on by the wealth and talent of society 
for the benefit of the rest. 

Besides these leaders full of public honors, there w^ere 
many barristers whose standing in the law and in society 
made appropriate their membership in such a party — John 
Wells, a man whose eloquence and wat enlivened party 
meetings, and whose learning qualified him as the editor of 
the Federalist Papers, when those essays were prepared for 
publication; ' Nathaniel Pendleton, who, after he had stood 
with Hamilton on the fatal morning of the duel with Burr, 
rose to prominence in the legislature and on the bench ; ■' 
and John Lawrence, who served as district judge, and as 
congressman and senator in Washington.* And there were 
younger men who formed opinion under such tuition ; 
Robert Bogardus, for example, still important in the party 
when forty years had passed,' and the Ogdens, David B.. 
the favorite nephew of Gouverneur Morris, and whom the 
historian Hammond, generally so temperate in praise, re- 
called as the " gigantic-minded." ^ and his cousin David A.. 

'J. S. Jenkins, History of Political Parties in New York State 
(Auburn, 1846), pp. 27, 35, 51 et scq. This book is largely a summary 
of Hammond's Political History with some additions. 

-Memorial of the Life and Character of John Wells (N. Y., 1874) '• 
J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, pp. 135-137. David Hosack 
in his Memoir of DeWitt Clinton (N. Y., 1829) says Hamilton, Wells, 
Emmett and Clinton were the four most accomplished speakers the 
state had produced, p. 41. 

'Appleton, vol. iv, p. 729. 

*iV. Y. Civil List, 1889, pp. 598, (.03, 62S. 

••General Bogardus was grand marshal at the obsequies of President 
Harrison in 1841, 

® Morris, Diary and Letters, vol. i,. pp. 549 et scq. ; J. D. Hammond, 
Political History, vol. ii, p. 480. Were it not too tedious, of course, the 
roll could reach much further. 



l8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

whom we shall trace far to the north. Of those who 
practiced at the bar of the metropolis in the first years of 
the nineteenth century, small though their number was, the 
chief part of the talent, which commanded large well-paying 
patronage, was exerted in the Federalist cause. 

Although the actual administration of this party, as well 
as the public business, was for the most part then, as 
well as now, left to the skill of the distinguished lawyers, 
the weight of its support was largely borne by wealthy 
merchants; we have it on the best authority that the great 
majority of those extensively engaged in trade a hundred 
years ago were numbered on its rolls. ^ As one glances over 
the array of names upon a party ticket, for example that of 
1806, and pauses to refresh the somewhat faded memory of 
these old-time worthies, he soon perceives a certain balance 
in the interests of the bar and of business.^ Of the two- 
men named for Congress, one was Nicholas Fish, the 
banker,^ and the other, John B. Coles, a flour merchant with 
large ventures over-seas, who had as alderman for six years 
represented the wealth and aristocracy of the old first 
ward.* As candidates for the assembly one finds lawyers 
like Judge Benson, William Henderson and J. O. Hoffman, 
but their order was not left exclusively to represent the 
party; there are the names of Selah Strong, who had been 
alderman for the third ward, and dispensed advice upon 
the law along with bales and barrels of more material 
commodities at his Front Street warehouse,' Wynant Van 

'Barrett, Old Merchants, vol. i, p. 81. 

'See in A^. Y. Commercial Advertiser. April 21, 1806. 

'Barrett, vol. iii, pp. 138-139. 

* Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 41-45, 68-71, 321 ; W. G. Davis, " New York in 1801 " 
in Views of Early New York (N. Y.. 1904) ; L. H. Weeks, Prominent 
Families of New York (N. Y., 1898), p. 35. The candidates for the 
state senate were not residents of New York city. 

'Barrett, vol. i, pp. 365, 366. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN ig 

Zandt, another influential merchant who had sat among 
the city fathers/ and John Townsend, an ironmonger with 
branch stores in Albany.'-' The chairman of the meeting 
which had made the nominations was John B. Dash, im- 
portant in the hardware trade," and the secretary, Robert 
Cheeseborough. was likewise eminent in business.* 

It was the custom of the time that a ticket so brought 
forth in public meeting should be recommended to the 
voters by a long address subscribed by gentlemen of stand- 
ing in the party. Cornelius Ray, whose name begins the 
list in 1806, was. perhaps the foremost financier of New 
York state; for the president of the local branch of the 
Bank of the United States, and likewise for a term of many 
years, of the chamber of commerce in the city, was a 
person of commanding influence." Such a dignitary might 
well be selected as a proper representative of Federalism, 
and he was often called upon to serve as chairman at the 
party meetings.*^ Next comes the name of General Matthew^ 
Clarkson, who for almost an entire generation was the 
president of the Bank of New York, a friendly rival in- 
stitution, whose principal directors for the most part, like 
those who served with Ray, were in political agreement 
with their chief. '^ Clarkson was a man of consequence 
within the circle of Hamilton and King and Morris, while 

' Barrett, vol. v, p. 243. '^Ibid., vol. ii, p. 135. 

^Ihid., vol. i, pp. 181-183. Ubid., vol. i, pp. 331, 441. 

^ Ibid., vol. V, p. 40; Longworth's American Almanac, New York 
Register, etc., 1807, p. 63; 1810, p. 62; 181 1, p. 11 et seq. 

^N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 25, 1806; April 1807, Albany 
Gazette, April 4, 1808. N. Y. Ezfening Post, April 28, 1809, April 16, 
1813, etc. 

^ See ms. notes on a petition for a St. Lawrence-Champlain Canal, 
Flagg Mss. (Miscellaneous papers) N. Y. Public Library; Appleton's 
Cyclopedia of American Biography, vol. i, supplement, p. 797; Barrett, 
vol. i, pp. 270-274; vol. V, p. 40. 



20 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



his generosity in time and money had made him by a wider 
world admired and beloved as an edifying example of the 
fine solicitude which the rich might sometimes exercise in 
the interest of the poor/ Closely following is Isaac Sebring, 
whose extensive shipping business, as we shall see. did iiot 
exhaust the ingenuity and enterprise he loved to bring to 
bear upon his problems as a party manager.' Next is John 
B. Murray, whose captains trading in the Orient brought 
i>ack their cargoes of rare and staple teas to increase his 
fortune. Like others of his station, in the 'thirties he will 
still be found engaged against the might and strategy of 
Tammany as alderman for the fifteenth ward, the northern 
stronghold of his party.' Fifth on the list is Archibald 
Gracie, whose ventures touched in every harbor of the 
world,' a proper member of a company that enrolled such 
names as Sherred, Minturn, Hone, Le Roy, to pick almost 
at random, all famous in the annals of the city's trade.' 

But if those whose business was to fit out ships and barter 
goods at auction, had found expression of their ideas in the 
policies of Hamilton, the same was still more true of those 
who won their fortunes in the skilful management of that 
less tangible, symbolic wealth of paper, of dividends and 
mortgage bonds, and those uncertain rights and values so 
ineptly named securities. Among the presidents of banks. 
there were not only Ray and Clarkson and Nicholas Fish, 
twice named for lieutenant governor and several times for 

'Morris, Diary and Letters, vol. ii, p. 458". W. W. Spooner, Historic 
Families of America ( N. Y.. 1908), vol. iii, pp. 282-284; The Clarksons 
of New York (N. Y., 1875) ; Barrett, vol. i, p. 296. 

' Barrett, vol. iv, pp. 18-20: and infra, ch. iv. 

^Ihid., vol. i, p. 292; vol. ii, p. 107; vol. v. pp. 190- 191. 

* Ibid., dedication to vol. ii, p. 5- 

^Ibid., vol. iii, p. 65; vol. iv. pp. 151. 24:2; vol. iv, pp. 240-244; vol. ii, 
pp. 160-162. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN 2 1 

the assembl}'/ but Henry Remsen, Oliver Wolcott, Varick 
and Verplanck, who were ranked as party leaders at the 
beginning of the century.' Likewise in this list of 1806 
are names of brokers like Nicholas Low ^ and presidents 
of insurance companies like Gabriel Furman and Elisha 
Tibbits i^who were now and then put up for members of 
the legislature), Charles McEvers, Frederic DePeyster and 
William W. Woolsey.* It is evident that the wealthy mer- 
chants of New York were strongly Federalist. For ex- 
ample, if one foregathered with them in the Tontine Coffee 
House, which served as the city stock exchange as well as 
tavern.^ he would have found in 1801 that four of tive 
trustees of that important institution were members of the 
party, and even this small minority of one was to be swept 
away at the next election which brought in a unanimous 
board. ° Or if one visited the more ambitious and elaborate 
merchants' exchange built in later years, he would have seen 

1 Barrett, vol. iii, p. 229; J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, 
p. 294. 

2 See mss. note on petition for St. Lawrence-Champlain Canal, 
supra; Barrett, vol. ii, pp. 10-13; vol. v, 254-255. Gulian Verplanck 
was the father of Johnston Verplanck and the uncle of Gulian C. 
Verplanck, both of whom will figure in these pages. 

^King Correspondence, vol. v, p. 40. 

*Ms. note, supra; N'. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 21, 1S06; 
Barrett, vol. i, p. 383; vol. ii, p. 266; L. H. Weeks, Prominent Families 
of New York, p. 220. 

' John Lambert, Travels Through Canada and the United States of 
America in the Years 1806, 1807. 1808 (London, 1815), vol. ii, pp. 55 
et seq. "An English traveller, who visited New York in 1794, writes 
that: The Tontine Tavern and Coffee House is a large brick building; 
you ascend six or eight steps under a portico, into a large public room 
which is the Stock Exchange of New York, where all bargains are made. 
Here are two books kept, as at Lloyds of every ship's arrival and 
clearing out." It remained the stock exchange for many years, W. H. 
Bayles, Old Taverns of New York (N. Y., 1915), pp. 360-361. 

^ Abram Wakeman, History and Reminiscences of Lower Wall Street 
and Vicinity (N. Y., 1914), pp. 55-63. 



22 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

enshrined within the place of honor in the great rotunda, the 
statue of Alexander Hamilton/ In such resorts as these 
the Sage of Monticello was not mentioned with respect. 
There was still a merchants' party just as there had been 
before the Revolutionary War." These men of business 
did not think themselves discharged from public duty when 
they had set their names to an address. As one fingers 
over the old directories the names appear again as alder- 
men; Philip Brasher, Samuel M. Hopkins, Peter Mesier. 
Nicholas Fish, John Slidell and others are recorded as the 
representatives of the first four wards, in the opening 
decades of the nineteenth century."' 

In 1 80 1 the city had over-reached the mark of sixty 
thousand and stretched northward from the Battery some- 
what beyond a mile to the partly wooded hills that sloped 
back from the Collect or Fresh-water Pond.* The pic- 
turesque old names of Out-Ward, Dock-Ward and Mont- 
gomerie's had passed into memory and the wards, now 
simply numbered, were seven in all, reckoning from the 
south. ^ There was no Hadrian's Wall that ran through 
Reade Street from the Hudson to the Park and through 
Chatham and Catharine to East River, to set the pale of 
civilization, but the assessor's figures and electoral returns 
could furnish evidence that somewhere near those streets 

' W. A. Pelletreau, Early Neiv York Hot<scs (N. Y., 1901), p. 22. 

^C. L. Becker, History of Political Parties in the Province of New 
York, 1 760- 1 776 (Madison, 1909), p. 116. 

*J. F. Jones, New York Mercantile and General Directory (N. Y., 
1805); Elliott & Crissey, New York Directory, 181 1; D. Longworth, 
American Almanac, New York Register and City Directory, 1801, 1802, 
1803, 1805, 1807, 1808. 

* A New and Accurate Map of the City of New York in the State of 
New York in North America, N. Y., 1797 (New York Public Library). 
Cf. Plan of the City of New York, 1791, in D. T. Valentine's Manual 
of the Corporation of the City of Netv York (N. Y., 1851), for scale. 

*J. F. Jones, op. cit., pp. 111-113, for boundaries. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN 23 

there was a barrier, no less present because it was invisible, 
which, speaking with the standards of this world, marked 
off the " better " from the " worse." ^ And within this 
favored southern half itself, as one walked toward the Bat- 
tery, there steadily increased and multiplied all those signs of 
affluence that flowed from business. Likewise one remarked 
the aspect of refinement and prestige which that affluence in 
part maintained, until with the stately houses by the side of 
Bowling Green one reached the very sacred inner court of 
New York gentility." These mansions with their pilasters 
and porticos were known as " Quality Row," ^ and in their 
simple grace made a pleasant background for the fashion- 
able promenade flanked by the greensward and the flower- 
beds of this old park.* 

But the aristocratic quarter of the town included other 
streets near by, extended up Broadway and to the Pearl 
Street region, north and east.'" It is interesting to observe 

' Cf. wards in D. Longworth's Actual Map and Comparative Plans 
Showing 88 Years' Growth of the City of New York (N. Y., 1817), and 
in L. A. Risse. New York in 1800 (N. Y., igoo). 

* Spencer Trask, Bowling Green (N. Y., 1898), pp. 41-46; W. A. Duer, 
New York as It Was, During the Latter Part of the Last Century, an 
address before the St. Nicholas Society, (N. Y., 1849), pp. 11-12, notes. 

^ See drawings in Emmett Collection (N. Y. Public Library), and 
W. A. Pelletreau, Early New York Houses, p. 217. 

■* J. M. Mathews, Recollections of Persons and Events (selections 
from his journal, N. Y., 1865), p. 26; Washington Irving and others, 
Salmagundi Papers, no. xii, Saturday, June 27, 1807 ; A. C. Dayton, 
Last Days of Knickerbocker Life (N. Y., 1897), ch. ii. 

'"The aristocratic quarter for residences at this period [the opening 
of the century] was Whitehall, Beaver, Broad. Water, and Pearl Streets, 
and the lower part of Broadway. Cherry, Roosevelt, Oak. Madison, 
Oliver, Harman (East Broadway) and Market Streets were occupied 
by many people of position and fortune." C. H. Haswell, Reminiscences 
of an Octogenarian, 1816-1860 (N. Y., 1896), pp. 13-14, 21-25; Stephen 
Jenkins, The Greatest Street in the World, The Story of Old Broadzmy. 
etc. (N. Y., 191 1), p. 43; List of Houses and Lots, valued at £1000 



24 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

that this was the section which with monotonous fidelity 
returned its Federalist members to the board of aldermen 
and the legislature of the state/ until about the middle of 
the 'forties when it became "the test of gentility to live 
above Bleecker." " The fourth ward was less wealthy than 
its neighbors to the south and east, and became less regTjlar, 
though even this was still to be relied upon in any party 
crisis; but with the growth of the city another ward came 
to take its place. Even before 1800 the gentry about the 
Green, those few of them who had their carriages,^ had 
occasionally driven out to visit country friends who lived 
more spaciously among their groves and orchards, their 
gardens and cow pastures, in the open reaches of the farm- 
land.* These suburban residences, some of them of great 
cost and dignit3^■"' grew in number and filled in the meadows 
toward the Hudson, each new resident content with fe^ver 
acres. In 1805, when some readjustments were in process 
in districting the upper sections of the city, a new ward was 
created, the ninth, which took in the remainder to the north.* 
This region also for the next quarter of a century though 
not populous, was fairly constant in the balance against the 

and over in 1799, J. G. Wilson, Memorial History of the City of New 
York, vol. iii, pp. 150-152; J. F. Mines, A Tour Around New York, 
and My Summer Acre, Being the Recreations of Mr. Felix Oldboy 
(N. Y., 1893), pp. 124-127. 

^ For example, A^. Y. Evening Post, November 18, 1801, April 30, 1802, 
April 28, 1803 ; iV. Y. Spectator, April 29, 1804, etc. 

^W. A. Pelletreau, Early New York Houses, p. 78. 

^ Appleton's Cyclopedia of National Biography, article Herman LeRoy. 

* Qiarles King, Progress of the City of New York During the Last 
Fifty Years (N. Y., 1852), pp. 6-8. 

* List of Houses and Lots, etc. Wilson, loc. cit. ; William L. Stone 
(Jr.), History of New York City (N. Y., 1872), p. 319. 

« Cf. Map of city in 1804, D. T. Valentine's Manual, 1849, with J. F. 
Tones, Directory, etc., 1S05, p. 116. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN 25 

democrats who made their homes in the less lovely purlieus 
of "the Swamp."' ^ From this rehearsal it is plainly to be 
seen that those districts, where wealth and social standing- 
made their citizens anxious to encourage commerce upon 
the one hand and to conserve the old traditions of a ruling- 
class upon the other, were, as should reasonably have been 
expected, found upon the side of Jay and Morris and Van 
Rensselaer. 

Another source of power in supporting- the tradition of 
strong government was the Episcopal Church, whose clerg;^' 
in the trying days before the war had met the cry for 
armed rebellion with the stern and certain doctrine that 
God had stablished states and commanded the obedience of 
peoples to authority.^ The sentiment and preaching of the 

'In 1806 the Fourth Ward is missing from the P'ederalist column; 
in 1809 the Ninth Ward is added to it, N. Y. Spectator, May 6, 1807, 
November 23, 1809, May i, 1812, etc. The following table from the 
Census of the Electors and Total Population of the City and County 
of Ne7v York, pamphlet (N. Y., 1807), p. 5, giving the ratio of the t-wo 
may serve, vmder qualified suffrage, as an index of the intensity of 
wealth: 

Wards Inhabitants Electors 

1st 7,954 1,086 

2nd 7,551 1,042 

3rd 7,709 1,118 

4th 9,236 1,331 

5th 12,739 1,901 

6th 9,861 1.421 

7th 19,487 3,140 

8th 6,067 1,023 

9th 2,926 339 

The small number of electors in the Federalist ninth ward were owners 
of considerable property; it usually returned the smallest Federalist 
majority, see N. Y. Herald, May 2, 1810. 

'Dr. Myles Cooper, The American Querist (N. Y., 1774), queries 
90-100; A. C. Flick, Loyalisnt in New York During the Revolution, 
p. 9, note; and the pamphlets of Bishop Samuel Seabury and the Rever- 
end T, B. Chandler. 



26 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

church had been deeply loyal, and it was not surprising that 
when news reached New York that the fateful step of 
separation had been taken-. Trinity parish had been torn 
with bitter strife, and that many, if not most, of its in- 
fluential members had taken ship for Nova Scotia when 
the British troops departed from the city,^ or stayed behind; 
in a precarious hope of toleration at the hands of the new 
government. If republics, according to the ancient proverb, 
were ungrateful, perhaps (and the outcome justified the 
trust) they might not be vindictive. The Whig Episco- 
palians to whom fell the conduct of the parish, and in con- 
sequence, perhaps a controlling influence in the church of 
New York state, had differed from the rest of the com- 
munion as to the right of independence, but they were little 
less opposed to any deep and sudden change in the powers 
of the state. It was an article of faith that the mandates 
of the civil power should be obeyed, without the church 
assuming responsibility for their righteousness. A republic 
it might be, but subjects should be taught obedience and 
support to those whom Providence had called to govern- 
ment. Years had not stayed the force of Hooker's stern 
injunction : 

Sometimes it pleaseth God himself by special appointment to 
choose out and nominate such as to whom dominion shall be 
given, which thing he did often in the commonwealth of 
Israel. They who in this sort receive power have it immedi- 
ately from God, by mere divine right ; they by human, on whom 
the same is bestowed according to men's discretion, when they 
are left free by God to make choice of their own governor. 
By which of these means soever it happen that kings or gov- 
ernors be advanced unto their states, we must acknowledge 

' M. Dix, Trinity Church, vol. i, ch. xxiii, and vol. ii, ch. i ; Flick, 
ot>. cit., p. 36 (an obviously exaggerated statement) ; and United Empire 
Loyalist Convention (Toronto, 1884), p. no. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN 



27 



both their lawful choice to be approved of God, and themselves 
to be God's lieutenants, and confess their power His.^ 

Robert Troup, one of the committee that brought the parish 
through the war, could understand the soundness of such 
teaching. The more he saw of the progress of Jacobinism 
in his state, he wrote to King long after, the more he 
realized the need of setting up a college for the training of 
the clergy of his church, and it was this impulse that urged 
his interest and support in the founding of the institution 
at Geneva.^ 

It was not surprising that the clergy beheld with ap- 
prehension the ominous rise of Jefferson ; for not only had 
he beaten down the power of the establishment in Virginia/ 
but of late there had grown up a cult of deism around this 
bold profaner of the sacred word, who applied the gauge of 
human reason to the inspired history of Genesis and criti- 
cized the accounts of the creation and the deluge.* It is 
possible that like their Calvinist neighbors to the eastward 
they deemed this rather liberal Unitarian little better than 
an atheist. In their consciences they no doubt shared the 
awful anger of the Congregational ministers who from 
their pulpits thundered wrath upon "the Jereboam who 
drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin 
a great sin;" ^ yet they never acquired the political influence 
claimed and exercised by these leaders of New England. 

•Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1665), bk. 
viii, ch. ii, verse 5; (N. Y., 1845), vol. ii, p. 228. 

^R. Troup to R. King, June i, 1807, King Correspondence. 

'Thomas Jefferson, Works (Ford edition), vol. i, p. 52, and Notes 
on Religion, ibid., vol. ii, p. 95. 

* Jefferson to Charles Thomson, 1786, ibid., vol. iv, p. 338, and Notes 
on Virginia, ibid., vol. iii, p. 116-118. 

5 Henry Adams. History of the United States (N. Y., 1889), vol. i, 
p. 80; H. S. Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson (N. Y., 1858), 
vol. ii, pp. 648-652. 



28 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

With Episcopalians Mr. Jefferson might be wrong in his 
opinions but he was President; with the eastern clergy he 
might be President but he was a vicious and a pestilent 
man. Massachusetts had been founded as an ecclesiastical 
experiment. It was a place where those who worshipped 
rightly might worship undisturbed, but the clergy with their 
knowledge of the Scriptures were expected to make clear 
the ways and means by which this might be accomplished. 
John Calvin himself had declared that the function of the 
state was merely to produce conditions under which the 
ministers might work out the ideal commonwealth of the 
elect, and thus they Avere regarded to be oracles above the 
civil law.' The absolute authority of these early days of 
sainthood had dropped away somewhat, but still the min- 
isters were expected, now and then, to give suggestions to 
the state, and in the crisis precipitated by the change of iSoi 
they made a stubborn fight to preserve their influence. 

With the Episcopal divines the case was different. The 
Erastian tradition of their church deterred them from too 
active meddling in affairs of state, and though personally 
favorable to Federalism, as no doubt their order was, they 
put forth no pamphlet fulminations against the lawful gov- 
ernment and undertook no prominent role in party contests. 
The contrast in theory' was sharp ; in New England the clergy^ 
were responsible for the state, the New York Episcopalians 
responsible to it; while the battle raged between the former 
and the arch-blasphemer at Washington, the latter confined 
their active work in politics to the ballot on election day. 
Yet, as we shall see in the city and elsewhere in the state, 
the Episcopal Church was a quiet stronghold of the "de- 
cency-and-order" party, and a parish vestry might easily 
adjourn from talking about tithes and charities, to have its 

^Institutes of Christian Theology (edition of I539). bk. i, chs. vii, viii ; 
bk. iv, chs. viii, ix, x. 



THE FEW, THE RICH, AND THE WELL BORN 29 

members meet again in same neighboring long-room as a 
Federalist caucus. 

The influence of Columbia College in this respect must 
not be neglected. To its foundation half a century before, 
Trinity parish had contributed a tract of land with the 
understanding that the president of the new institution was 
ever afterward to be a member of the Episcopal commu- 
nion,' — a provision which was incorporated in the college 
charter and ever afterwards observed. Under Dr. Cooper 
and his fellow teachers, the college had taught loyalty to the 
king, and after it assumed the name Coliunbia it was far 
from the extreme in its preaching of new doctrines. Libert}- 
it certainly expounded, but its fraternity savored of benevo- 
lence, and equahty was not commended. The trustees, 
among whom Federalism was almost unanimous, kept an 
anxious eye upon the teaching: when a president was 
sought, Alexander Hamilton, in some inquiries, made it 
clear "that his politics must be of the right sort." - Of the 
four great Federalist leaders of the state three were its sons, 
and the fourth, Rufus King, a trustee for eighteen years. ^ 
After speaking of such men as these and Robert Troup 
and Egbert Benson, an early historian of the college goes 
on to say: "The foremost lawyers at the bar, and jurists 
on the bench of our State- and city, and in the United States 
courts, have been among the alumni of Columbia; such as — 
to select a few names not before enumerated: Harison. 
Jones, Ogden, Hoffman. Wells. Robinson, Lawrence," * 

1 J. H. Van Amringe and others, History of Columbia College 
(N. Y., 1904), pp. 84, 97; M. Dix. Trinity Church, vol. i, p. 280: and 
the interesting- letter of Dr. J. M. Mason to Rufus King, February 10. 
1810, King Correspondence. 

^Hamilton to James A. Bayard, August 6, 1800, Hamilton's Writings 
(Lodge), vol. viii, pp. 559-560. 

*W, A. Jones, "The First Century of Columbia College," Knicker- 
bocker Magazine, February, 1863. ♦ Ibid. 



30 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

which, with the exception of Beverly Robinson, who, as a 
Tory, was obliged to change his residence to Nova Scotia,^ 
almost calls the roll of the important Federalists practicing 
at law in New York city. This tradition was to be 
continued under the presidencies of two leading Federalists 
and Whigs, William A. Duer and Charles King; it long re- 
mained a " family college " for old New Yorkers who 
cherished the memory of Hamilton, Morris and Jay. 

*E. Ryerson, The Loyalists of America and Their Times (Toronto, 
1880), vol. ii, pp. 197-198. 



CHAPTER II 

Politics and Prejudice Throughout the Countryside 

Although Federalism had flourished chiefly in the city 
of New York, there were other sections of the state, where, 
as in those which centered in Albany and Hudson, it was the 
ruling philosophy of politics. The influence of old families 
like the Schuylers and Van Rensselaers, reinforced by the 
economic power of the wealthy merchants who moved 
across from Massachusetts and Connecticut, persisted in 
unquestioned strength long after the prestige of the aris- 
tocracy in the metropolis had been challenged and reduced/ 
Albany had recently been made the permanent capital of 
the state," and though it boasted then but five thousand 
people, it was destined partly through this dignity to add 
an extra thousand every year for many decades.^ In 1801, 
however, it was a third or fourth rate town, as a captious 
chronicler declared, penned in upon its hills by endless 
thickets of pine, and "indeed Dutch, in all its moods and 
tenses ; thoroughly and inveterately Dutch." * The old fam- 

^ Cf. O. G. Libby, The Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the 
Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, p. 18, for the vote in 1788. 

2 In 1797; A. J. Parker (editor), Landmarks of Albany Comity 
(Syracuse, 1897), p. 301. 

3 See table in Joel Munsell's notes to G. A. Worth, Random Recollec- 
tions of Albany, 1800-1808, p. 20. These interesting reminiscences 
were first published in Albany, 1849, soon followed by a second edition 
in 1850 entitled Random Recollections, etc. With Some Additional 
Matter, the large appendix being recollections of Hudson. In 1866 
Munsell published the work referring to Albany with copious notes, 
in large and small paper editions. 

^Jbid., pp. 20, 27. 

51 



32 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Hits g-ained their income largely from their spacious holdings 
granted in the years gone by, and, in their leisure, they were 
not averse to taking part in the political contests of the day/ 
The venerable General Philip Schuyler, of whose services 
to Federalism we shall speak again, was soon to make over 
to his heirs his home and his six thousand acres.' Shattered 
by the shock of the tragic death of one son-in-law, the 
admired Hamihon, he sank into a decrepitude that found 
a speedy end in death, leaving the leadership of the Dutch 
aristocracy to another daughter's husband, Stephen Van 
Rensselaer, called by universal courtesy, the Patroon.' 

This new leader in society and politics was, at the be- 
ginning of the nineteenth century, the richest man in New 
York state,^ and the largest landlord in the country-, with 
his scores of square miles parceled out on leasehold tenure, 
yielding a large income from the rents and quarttr-sales.'' 
He had been elected to the first assembly summoned under 
the new Federal Constitution, two years later had been pro- 

1 Random Recollections of Albany, pp. 42-49> 

»C. Re^Tiolds, Albany Chronicle (Albany, 1906), p. 396; O. Tilghman, 
Memoir of Lf. Col. Tench Tilghman (Albany, 1876), p. 23. 

*B. J. Lossing, The Life and Times of Philip Schuyler (N. Y., i860), 
vol. ii. pp. 474-475 ; Bayard Tuckerman, Life of General Philip Schuyler 
(N. Y., 1904), pp. 269-271. Schuyler died November 18, 1804. Since 
lordships, manors, etc.. were abolished by the legislature of the new 
government just before Stephen Van Rensselaer became of age, he 
could not with accuracy be called the sixth lord of the manor or the 
eighth patroon. Although local custom gave the title of patroon to 
others Hke the Knickerbockers and the Van der Heydens, when used 
alone it was always understood to refer to Van Rensselaer. See G. 
W. Schuyler, Colonial New York (N. Y.. 1885), vol. i. pp. 227-231 ; John 
Woodworth, Reminiscences of Troy from its Settlement in 1790 to 1807 
(Albany, i860; published first in pamphlet form in 1853), pp. 90-93; 
and A. J. Weise, Troy's One Hundred Years (Troy, 1891), p. 23. 

* Henry Adams, History of the United States, vol. i, p. 27. 

*E. P. Cheyney, The Anti-Rent Agitation in the State of Neiv York 
(Philadelphia, 1887). 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 33 

moted to a quadrennial term in the senate of the state, and 
had then served six years as lieutenant-governor. In the 
spring of 1801 the Federalist party had rallied v^ith genuine 
enthusiasm to make him governor, but to no avail. The 
influence he wielded in the party both before and after this 
first disappointment was, as we shall see, not unconnected 
with his power as landlord, but his reputation as a man was 
such as to draw the homage of men's hearts. Even in re- 
lations with his tenantry he was generous to a fault ;^ 
courteous and affable in manner, with an habitual expression 
of kindness and good will in language and in countenance 
that seemed never to forsake him,' he seemed the blameless 
model of the old nobility that would have pleased Lord 
Chesterfield or Mr. Lecky. For he added to these personal 
attractions, a sound judgment and a character that marked 
him within the Dutch church and without as one of highest 
standards of morality." He was a gallant champion to 
whom the partisans of the rule of aristocracy could point 
with comfortable pride. 

Beside him in the leadership of the old Dutch families 
stood Abraham Van Vechten. descended from a lesser 
landed squire.* He was a fine "si>ecimen of a class he loved 
to represent. If he was somewhat heavy in appearance 

' G. W. Schuyler, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 227-231 ; S. W. Rosendale, " Clos- 
ing Phases of the Manorial System in Albany," Proceedings of the New 
York State Historical Association, vol. viii, p. 243. It was his leniency 
which produced the long accounts whose claims in enforcement brought 
on the Anti-Rent troubles after his death in 1839, see Cheyney, op. cit. 

-J. M. Mathews, Recollections of Persons and Events, p. 69. 

*Ibid., p. 70. 

*L. H. Weeks, Prominent Families of New York, p. 592. He was 
not graduated from King's College as erroneously stated in .A.. J. 
Parker, Landmarks of Albany County, part i, pp. 147-148, and G. R. 
Howell and J. Tenney, History of the County of Albany (N. Y.. 1886). 
P- ^Zi'> cf. Catalogue of OMcers and Graduates of Columbia University 
(N. Y.. 1912). 



34 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

and slow in his movements, he had all the staid solidity and 
strength which marked the Hollanders in their best days, 
and he never appeared either in public or private without 
commanding universal respect." ' He refused an appoint- 
ment to the bench tendered to him, while yet young in 
practice, by Governor Jay, but during the first two decades 
of the century he spent a part of nearly every year in the 
senate or the assembly, finding joy in fighting for his Fed- 
eralist principles.^ It was in accord with the conservatism 
of his well-to-do constituents that by argument and vote in 
the convention of 1 821, he gave all his support to the dictum 
of Chancellor Kent, "that to the beneficence and liberality 
of those who have property, we owe all the embellishments 
and the comforts and the blessings of life." ^ Logical in 
reasoning and eloquent in speech, famous for his faith in 
old theories of government by men of wealth and social 
standing, no less than for his mordant sarcasm in attacks 
upon the new. he held an independent course quite to the 
last and scoffed at the intrigues by which his party sought 
to play with factions of the enemy." Supported by such 
strong lieutenants as Johan Jost Dietz,' Dirck Ten Broeck,^ 
Hermanus Bleecker,'' and Colonel James Van Schoon- 

1 J. M. Mathews, op. cit., p. 71- 

' Howell and Tenney, op. cit., p. 133; Munsell's notes to G. A. Worth, 
Random Recollections, pp. 61-63; N. Y. Civil List, 1889, pp. 374-377, 
420-424, 

^J. D. Hammond, Political Ilistory, vol. ii, pp. 21, 30. 

* D. S. Alexander, Political History of the State of New York, vol. i, 
pp. 168-169; J. S. Jenkins, Political Parties, p. I99- See especially his 
speeches after the Van Ness charge, January 26, 1820, as reported in the 
Albany Daily Register. 

^N. Y. Civil List, 1889, pp. 416-422, J. S. Jenkins, op. cit., p. 59- 

* Civil List, pp. 415-418, and Jenkins, p. 64. 

' Civil List, pp. 424-425, and Bleecker to Rufus King, February 16, 
1816, King Correspondence. 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



35 



hoven/ he showed how the Dutch aristocracy could join 
hands with the merchants in New York to oppose the party 
of the artisan and httle farmer.^ Through Albany, 
Rensselaer and Columbia counties, the wealthier of the old 
stock were Federalist in politics. 

The Dutch, however, were not left in undisputed sway 
within these upper river counties. In 1790 in Albany there 
were not more than five New England families,^ but in the 
following decade the westward movement set in from 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, and "the detested word 
improvement was on every lip," for the New Englanders 
brought in an enterprising, innovating spirit and set about 
buying and selling to such purpose that many merchants 
made their fortunes. These men, for the most part, reared 
in Federalism near the sea-coast, attached themselves again 
to the party now under Van Rensselaer and Van Vechten.* 
Yet this alliance was not made without some swallowing 
of old resentments, as the easterners brought with them 
an ancient jealousy of all things Dutch. 

Throughout their home-land thirty years before, there 
had broadly spread a conviction that the Dutch New York- 
ers who laid claim to the Hampshire grants beyond the 
proper bounds of Lake Champlain were something less 
than honest, and old prejudices had been renewed and deep- 
ened in the last days of the colonies; it was this feeling 
which had, in part, brought on the bickerings of the 
Revolutionary officers and the undeserved disgrace of 

* Civil List, pp. 367, 373-375, 4^2, 413, and Jenkins, p. 84. 
^Compare the list of 220 signers of a Federalist petition in the 

Albany Gazette, April 18, 1808, with a similar list of Republicans in 
the Albany Argus, April 9, 1813. The Yates family were an exception 
to the rule. 

^ Munsell's notes to Worth. Random Recollections, p. 33. 

* Worth, pp. 42-44. 



36 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

General Schuyler.^ The antagonism had survived and often- 
times the feeling was expressed with hearty emphasis. A 
politician recently arrived in the Mohawk valley, was asked 
how starting with a Yankee one could make a Dutchman. 
"Break his jaw and knock his brains out," was the quick 
rejoinder ; and when asked how a Dutchman could be made 
a Yankee, he retorted with as little hesitation, ''Can't do it, 
sir; ain't stock enough." ' There were some of these New- 
England Federalists who were induced w-ith difficulty, if at 
all, to concur in the nominations of the Patroon,^ but as 
the leaders grew in consciousness of common interest, these 
differences were composed, so that the party was finally 
pitted in full strength against the party of the mechanics, 
already recognized as such, at the beginning of the centur>-, 
and led by Benjamin Knower.* However this adjustment 
was accomplished, Albany and Rensselaer have, from that 
day to this, been ranged in opposition to the forces led by 
the sachems and the chiefs of Tammany Hall. 

In the region about Troy much the same conditions pre- 
vailed. When New York was still New Netherland. certain 

1 B. J. Lossing. Life and Times of Philip Schuyler, vol. i, pp. 198-203; 
vol. ii, chs. xvi and xvii; Bayard Tuckerman, Life of General Philip 
Schuyler, pp. 223 et seq. ; G. W. Schuyler, Correspondence and Remarks 
upon Bancroft's History of the Northern Campaign of I777- and the 
Character of General Philip Schuyler (N. Y., 1867), p. 25- 

-M. M. Bagg, The Pioneers of Utica (Utica, 1877), p. 64. 

'"There is a knot of Jacobins at Albany among the federalists, 
formed of New England people (of which our friend Lovel is I be- 
lieve one) as opposed to the Dutchman, who have been able to prevent 
the nomination of the patroon for a member of assembly, to which he 
had consented merely because he thought it might bring out more gov- 
ernor votes at the Election. It was this factious view that nominated 
Southwick as a federal Senator." Wm. Coleman to Rufus King, April 
16, 1816, King Correspondence. The name " Jacobins " here seems 
merely an abusive epithet. 

*G. A. Worth, Random Recollections, pp. 50-52- 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



37 



pioneers with the consent of the Van Rensselaers had pur- 
chased lands from the Mohegan Indians, eastward from 
the town of Beverwyck, now Albany/ The country lying 
somewhat off the lines of travel was but slowly settled, 
until, near the beginning of the eighteenth century, much 
of it fell into the possession of two notable Dutch families, 
the Van der Heydens and the Knickerbockers, who, though 
simply landlords, and, indeed, at one time holding only 
under lease, were commonly styled patroons.' With their 
large holdings, like their neighbors across the Hudson, these 
landed families gave their support to the conservative 
party. In 1801 young Herman Knickerbocker, then in his 
early twenties, was coming into prominence and, being 
"possessed of wealth and great personal influence, he was 
soon chosen to fill important offices." He was elected to 
Congress and then to the legislature where, hailed by all as 
the Prince of Schaghticoke, like Van Rensselaer and Van 
Vechten he represented the old caste. ''Bred from his 
childhood to association with some of the most distinguished 
Men of an Age remarkable for its high-toned Courtesy, and 
to the Controul of a large family of Slaves, his Manners 
acquired the blending of Suavity with Dignity peculiar to 
those accustomed to early Intercourse with the World, and 
the early Habit of Command." It is not surprising that 

^A. J. Weise, History of the City of Troy (Troy, 1876), pp. 8-11. 

- Derick Van der Heyden purchased in 1707, ibid., p. 14, and Johannis 
Knickerbocker in 1709; John Woodworth, Reminiscences of Troy front 
its Settlement in ijgo to 1807, p. 91, note. The name was originally 
spelled Knickerbacker, but Washington Irving's orthography made up 
in popular acceptance what it lacked in historical accuracy and is not 
now to be gainsaid. The second edition of Woodworth's Reminiscences 
(here cited) contains the valuable notes of Joel Munsell and others. 
Judge Woodworth was competent to write of political life, having held 
a variety of offices from loan commissioner in 1792 to justice of the 
supreme court of the state; see A. B. Street, Council of Revision of 
the State of New York, pp. 196-198. 



38 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

such men from their land offices and family seats exerted 
influence for Federalism.^ 

As in Albany, however, the Dutch aristocracy were 
-obliged, with better or worse grace, to welcome immigrants 
who came across the Berkshires. As soon as the settlement 
of Van der Heyden's Ferry grew into a village and in 1789 
took the name of Troy, homeseekers of the better class, 
largely from the middle parts of Massachusetts, made their 
appearance, building shops and bringing in commercial 
habits that transformed it into a thriving town.^ The more 
important of these newcomers were Federalists in politics, 
and their success in merchandising confirmed their old al- 
legiance to the party of the creditor; all or nearly all the 
larger merchants of Troy and Lansingburgh. near by, were 
of this party. George Tibbits, who came in from Rhode 
Island and who became the wealthiest among this class, 
was for a quarter of a century the political leader of the 
county, relying always on the strong support of his fellow 
men of business.^ In 1801, then, the power had been wholly 
in their hands for more than a decade, and though over- 
whelmed at the next election, they soon regained control 
with fair continuance, and with the help of the farmers 
who traded with them, gave the Rensselaer region a 
rather firmly fixed political character. 

To this, however, there was set no county boundary. In 

1 Woodworth, p. 85 (notes), pp. 91-93 ; A. J. Weise, op. cit., p. 16, ch. ii, 
and Troy's One Hundred Years, pp. 21-26. For more detailed description 
of the ancient splendor of the Knickerbockers, see W. B. Van Alstyne. 
" The Knickerbocker Family," in A''. Y. Getiealogical and Biographical 
Record, vols, xxxix and xl; Knickerbocker Magazine, vol. i, p. i et seq., 
and vol. xl, p. i et seq. ; and particularly General E. C. Viele, " The 
Knickerbockers of New York Tw^o Centuries Ago," Harpers' Nni' 
Monthly Magazine, vol. liv (1876-1877), pp. 33-43- 

^L. K. Mathews, The Expansion of New England (Boston, 1909). 
p. 153; A. J. Weise, Troy's One Hundred Years, p. 29. 

' Woodworth, op. cit., pp. 36-40, 42. 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 39 

Washington County, to the north, the Federalists likewise 
acquired an ascendancy almost unvarying. General John 
Williams, the friend of Philip Schuyler, was the largest 
landholder the county ever knew,^ and was (perhaps because 
of this) the leading Federalist.' Owing to the influence of 
such men as Williams and the Duers of Fort Miller, and 
to the numerous settlements of old Scotch stock, who had 
held to England throughout the Revolutionary War and 
whose sympathies could not be enlisted to support the 
French enthusiasms of Jefferson, as well as to the New 
Englanders who made their homes in Kingsbury and Salem, 
the region east of Lake George and the Upper Hudson was 
started on its path of straight and constant regularity in 
opposition to the Democratic party.' Federalism became a 
kind of fixed religion; nearly half a century after the 
" Revolution of 1800," when party politics in New York 
had undergone strange, bewildering mutations, Washington 
was still referred to as an old " Federal county." * 

Probably no settlement was made in New York state 
with higher hope of a great commercial future, than was 
Hudson. When in 1774 the Congress met in Philadelphia 
and drew up an agreement to cut off trade with England, 
a measure which soon provoked retaliation, the whalers of 
Nantucket saw their business slide from bad to worse, until 
war and the appearance of the British frigates brought on 
complete annihilation. With the restoration of peace, when 
hope revived, some of them decided to seek out a new port 
far enough removed from main roads of travel to be safe 

^The Salem Book (Salem, N. Y., 1896), pp. 77-78; History and 
Biography of Washington County and the Town of Queensbury 
('Richmond, Indiana), 1894, PP- 393-40O. 

^C. H. Hunt, Life of Edzvard Livingston, p. 69; jV. Y. Commercial 
Advertiser, March 18, 181 6. 

^History and Biography of Washington County, pp. 41, 44, 80. 
■'A'^. Y. Tribune, November 14, 1846. 



^O ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

from visitation by the enemy's fleet, if ever war broke out 
again. Acting on this resohition, certain brothers Jenkins 
prospected along the Hudson River and finally picked out 
Claverack Landing as blessed with harborage for ships of 
any likely depth and surrounded by a country rich and 
fertile. A company was formed to conduct this enterprise 
and was joined, among others, by several Quakers from 
Providence, Newport and Martha's Vineyard, it being pro- 
vided by the specifications of agreement that all must be 
whalers or merchants of good standing.^ 

Here was a community which naturally gave support to 
the business party in their domestic policy and in their 
overtures toward England in the interest of commercial 
friendship. It had cast a heavy vote for the new Federal 
Constitution," and had applauded all the measures for 
strengthening the navy and establishing the nation's credit in 
the ports across the water, so that the election of Mr. Jeffer- 
son seemed to its merchants, in the words of one of them, 
the wealthy Reuben Folger, " a signal to the nation to heave 
to, under bare poles." " Columbia County, of which Hudson 
was the small metropolis, though yielding later, now and 
then, to the blandishments of its distinguished son, Van 
Buren, was long known as a Federalist stronghold, the ob- 
ject of whole-souled affection or of fear, according to one's 
sympathies, in the days when the party was controlled by 
the "Columbia Junto." Of these men who played such 
prominent parts in the triumphs and vicissitudes of Fed- 
eralism, it is necessary to speak in some detail. 

^A. R. Bradley, History of the City of Hudson (Hudson. 1908), 
chs. iii, iv. aiid viii ; Franklin Ellis, History of Columbia County 
(Philadelphia, 1878), pp. 152-165; L. K. Mathews, The Expansion of 
New England, p. 155; S. B. Miller, Historical Sketches of Hudson 
("Hudson, 1862), p. 6-8. 

''O. G. Libby, Geographical Distribution of the Vote, etc., p. 18. 

' G. A. Worth, Random Recollections of Albany (and Hudson), p. 53. 




ELISHA WILLIAMS 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 41 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, moved by his incorrigible 
curiosity, once inquired of Gulian C. Verplanck who was 
the most remarkable person he had ever met. 

Now it must be remembered [writes the essayist] that this 
was a man, who had lived in a city that calls itself the metro- 
polis, one who had been a member of the State and National 
Legislatures, who had come in contact with men of letters and 
men of business, with politicians and members of all profes- 
sions, during a long and distinguished public career. I paused 
for his answer with no little curiosity. Would it be one of the 
great ex-Presidents whose names were known to all the world ? 
Would it be the silver tongued orator of Kentucky or the " God- 
like " champion of the Constitution, or our New England 
Jupiter Capitolinus ? who would it be ? " Take it altogether," 
he answered, very deliberately, " I should say Colonel Elisha 
Williams was the most notable personage I have ever met 
with." 1 

The man to whose memory such tribute could be paid 
came to Hudson as a young attorney in 1800.^ Unlettered, 
saving what professional knowledge he had gathered in the 
courts and in his rather superficial preparation for the ar- 
guments of particular cases, he had certain native talents 
that marked him out as a leader.' In a young community 
physical attractiveness is no doubt of far more importance 
than in those larger and, by social experience, more so- 
phisticated; Williams, as his portrait shows, was a man 
distinguished in appearance, tall and broad of chest, his 
forehead, nose and chin, such as pass with physiognomists 

^ O. W. Holmes. The Poet at the Breakfast Table (Riverside edi- 
tion, Boston, 1891), pp. 330331. Dr. Holmes was at fault in giving 
Williams a military title. 

'Wm. Raymond, Biographical Sketches of the Distinguished Men 
of Columbia County (Albany, 1851), p. i. 
J. A. Hamilton, Rentiniscences, p. 41. 



42 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

as evidences of great strength of character.^ "He was in- 
deed the most God-hke form I ever beheld," records one 
witness; " it seems as if the Creator, in the formation of his 
body and mind, designed to make a magnificent display of 
skill and workmanship." " "His was a majesty of person 
and of mien," declares another.^ Chancellor Kent long 
remembered "his commanding eye and dignified and at- 
tractive person." * It was easy to think good of such a 
man. Then, too, his was a generation in which the spread 
of literary education had not kept pace with the interest in 
public questions,'^ and in such a time a gift of eloquence was 
of first importance. Testimony to his vivid fancy, ready 
wat, his easy, pleasant grace, and melodious voice, vibrant 
now and then with what admirers were wont to call a "soul- 
subduing pathos." comes to us from divers sources.'' 
Thomas Addis Emmett, whose experience in Ireland had 
been broad, declared him to be the greatest advocate he had 
ever met." In such a man lapses in historical learning and 
occasional puerilities in political philosophy might be for- 
given.^ 

It is difificult to associate with Williams any great move- 

' See portrait in S. W. Williams, The Genealogy and History of 
the Family of Williams in America, More Particularly the Descend- 
ants of Robert Williams of Roxbury (Greenfield, Mass.), 1847, p. 131. 

^Wm. Raymond, op. cit. 

^N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, June 30. 1833. 

'' Quoted in S. W. Williams, op. cit., p. 132. 

*For illustration of the illiteracy then prevalent, one may examine 
the legal advertisements of the newspapers of the day, noticing how 
many are signed by mark. 

'J. A. Hamilton, Reminiscences, p. 41; P. F. Miller, A Group of 
Great Lawyers of Columbia County (based on his father's recollections), 
(N. Y., 1904), pp. 1 18-125; Wm. L. Stone (Sr.) speaks of his in- 
imitable grace of manner, quoted in S. W. Williams, p. 143. 

" Franklin Ellis, History of Columbia. County, p. 84. 

s [. A. Hamilton, loc. cit. 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE ^^ 

ment or reform; he was, in contrast to a leader such as 
Rufus King-, a manager of men and not a man of measures. 
Yet his contemporaries, captivated by his sparkling wit and 
genial grace, or at times reduced to a submissive awe by his 
corroding sarcasm, believed that had he but decided to go 
himself to Washington, instead of finding satisfaction in 
nominating others to this mission, "he might have ranked 
with Adams, Webster, Clay, Calhoun and other illustrious 
Americans, for he possessed talents at least equal to any 
man in the nation." ^ But the more impartial witness soon 
observes that these talents were not suited to that theatre 
upon which beats a fiercer light. As we shall see, he was as 
efifective when near to the state legislature as when sitting 
in it, for he and his colleagues of this Columbia Junto 
brought more things to pass by friendships and occult sug- 
gestions within the corridors of Albany, than by the driving 
force of argument. He wrote little and invented little; such 
effective service as he undoubtedly accomplished did not 
make for lasting fame; a generation later his name meant 
nothing to so well informed a man as Dr. Holmes." 

Most of what has here been said of Elisha Williams 
might be said as well of William W. Van Ness, except that 
possibly he possessed more matter if not less art. "Thank 
God ! " exclaimed his friendly rival at the bar, when Van 
Ness was elevated to the bench, "I have no longer an op- 
ponent to beat me by asking the foreman of the jury for a 
chew of tobacco." ^ Those who knew him pronounced him 
blessed with every gift which might bring popularity and 

* Wtn. Raymond, op. cit., pp. 4-5. 

* Cf. S. W. Williams, op. cit., p. 135; testimony of Stone and Mc- 
Kinstry, ibid., pp. 137-14S, and of Chancellor Kent, p. 132; Elizabeth 
Cady Stanton, Eighty Years and More (London, 1898), p. 7. 

'F. Ellis, History of Columbia County, p. 90; D. Hosack, Memoir 
of DeWitt Clinton (N. Y., 1829), pp. 449-450. 



44 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

power/ and though very young when he came to Hudson 
to begin his practice, just in time to take a part in the cam- 
paign against Jefferson/' he was soon recognized to be a man 
of talent. He was at the age of thirty-one appointed to be 
a judge of the supreme court by a Council controlled by 
members of his party, and was soon accepted as the "leading 
spirit of the political clique which guided the Federal party 
in the middle and western districts of New York." ^ He 
was associated with Alexander Hamilton in the famous 
Croswell trial of 1804 and became, in some degree, his suc- 
cessor as the brilliant party leader of the conservatives 
within the state. Yet here, too, it was a leadership due to 
personality ; the charm of his urbanity, the fine sallies and 
imagery of his most ordinary conversation, endeared him 
to men's hearts. He. too, wrote little and can be judged 
only through the eulogies of his admirers and the arraign- 
ments of his enemies.* 

The third member of this famous junto was Jacob R. 
Van Rensselaer, probably inferior to his associates, and yet 
recalled by one who knew his region well as the cleverest 
of his race and name.° He was somewhat older than 
Williams and Van Ness, but not less active in the arduous 
work of party politics, riding far and wide to check up 
votes, and spending many days and nights in Albany in an 
unofficial way.*' He was elected to the assembly for nine 
terms, once serving as speaker, and for a year was attorney 

'J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, p. 217. 

'P. F. Miller, A Group of Great Lawyers, p. 139. 

'J. A. Hamilton, Reminiscences, p. 42. 

*N. Y. Statesman, Proceedings of Columbia County Bar. and D. D. 
Barnard, quoted by Wm. Raymond, op. cit., pp. 21-31. 

^G. A. Worth, Random Recollections of Albany (and Hudson), p. 52. 

•N. E. Whitford, History of the Canal System of the State of New 
York, N. Y. Assembly Documents, 1906, vol. v, pp. 62-63. 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



45 



general,' yet he made few speches and, though his letters 
show him to have been a cultivated man, he wrote no 
pamphlets or newspaper essays, by which his political 
philosophy may be judged. He was accounted a very 
popular man, an able parliamentarian, and " a bold, active 
and zealous politician." - 

'Thus personal attractiveness may account in a large de- 
gree for the importance of the junto, but there was not 
lacking a solid base of economic sympathy with Federalism. 
Williams was widely noted as appreciating the emoluments 
of his profession and gave much time to speculation, chiefly 
in wild lands. It was his custom to follow closely all the 
sales of land for unpaid taxes, to buy and hold until the 
price advanced, and then sell to the settler,' thus founding, 
for example, the community of Waterloo in Seneca County. 
By this practice he earned from his opponents the epithet 
of "harpy." but earned as well a fortune of l^tween two 
and three hundred thousand dollars, then regarded a great 
sum of money.* Van Rensselaer, though belonging to the 
younger branch of that great family,^ held title to a sub- 
stantial section of the town of Claverack, but his business 

'.v. y. Civil List. 1889. p. 177. 

^ P. F. Miller, op. cit., pp. 114-117; F. Ellis, op. cit., p. 91; see also 
D. Hosack, De Witt Clinton, pp. 434-435. A fourth name some- 
times associated with the three treated above is that of Thomas 
P. Grosvenor, Williams' brother-in-law, who came to practice law 
in Hudson in 1803, and, with great size and voice, and a simple 
style of statement, was an able and tireless opponent in Congress of the 
policies of 1812; see Baltimore Federal Republican, quoted by Wm. 
Raymond, op. cit.. pp. 39-41, Miller, pp. 144-145. For a sample of his 
invective see his oration at Hudson, July 4, 1806, in New York 
Public Library. 

^ Wm. L. Stone (Sr.), "Narrative of a Journey in 1829" in Publica- 
tions of Buffalo Hist. Soc., vol. xiv, p. 258. 

*• N. Y. American, March 6, 10, May 12, 1819. Wm. Raymond, p. i. 

'" Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, article Van Rensselaer. 



46 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

was not confined to rents and mortgages. For example, 
in 1 817 he made an offer to the state to build the Grand 
Canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie on a contract calling 
for $10,000,000. though inasmuch as arrangements were 
undertaken by which the canal was actually constructed for 
$7,602,000, his offer was not deemed acceptable.^ Van 
Ness had no such passion for acquiring wealth as had 
Elisha Williams," but it was, as we shall see, his participa- 
tion as a promoter and a beneficiary, along with Williams, 
Van Rensselaer and Grosvenor, in a Federalist banking 
scheme, that brought about the political downfall of them 
all. Though more intimately associated with the lawyers 
of the country towns, they had sufficient taste for specula- 
tion to understand the wants and prejudices of their fellow 
partisans in the markets and exchanges of the city. This 
sympathy enabled them to lead the party in the state. 

There remains one other town along the river where 
Federalism had a following for many years. Poughkeepsie, 
which like Hudson was hopefully developed as a whaling 
port.^ James Emott, a member of an old Anglican and 
Tory family, and later one of the richest men of Dutchess 
County,* was the party leader. His fortune was not 
yet ascendant in the county, nor did he taste the 
fruits of triumph until the reaction due to the em- 
bargo in 1808, when, as we shall see, his election to the 

'J. R. Van Rensselaer to De Witt Clinton, March 11, 1817, DeWitt 
Clinton Mss., and E. R. Johnson in Cyclopedia of American Govern- 
ment, vol. i, p. 675. 

*See remarks of Williams on Van Ness, Wm. Raymond, p. 30. 

'P. H. Smith, General History of Duchess [sic] County (Pawling, 
N. Y., 1877), p. 365 ; Edmund Piatt, The Eagle's History of Poughkeepsie 
(Poughkeepsie, 1905), p. 96. Mr. Piatt's book may be considered one 
of the best local histories in New York state. 

♦P. H. Smith, p. 129; E. Piatt, pp. 90, 115, 135; Appleton, vol. ii, 
p. 352. He was resident for a time in Albany. 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



47 



Eleventh Congress brought a leader to the House hailed 
as foremost of the opponents of the War of 1812/ In 
managing the party in Poughkeepsie, he had the constajit 
and enthusiastic aid of Thomas Jefferson Oakley, who, 
having been christened before the author of the Declaration 
of Independence became a party leader, now did what he 
could to live down so embarrassing a name.^ 

As the story of the Federalist party is unfolded, the 
Dutchess County leaders will appear in company with 
Barent Garden ier, who lived across the river in old Ulster 
County and joined with Emott in the attack on " Mr. 
Madison's war." * Gardenier had no easy task after Ulster 
changed to Jefferson in 1804. and for a season was obliged 
to yield the honors to his astute antagonist, Lucas Elmen- 
dorff, whom Van Buren was said to claim as his preceptor 
in the art of politics.* In this county, no less than in 
the neighboring Delaware and Dutchess, was felt the in- 
fluence in politics of the great landlords, especially the 
Livingstons, whose fortunes were for many years combined 
with those of Jefferson.'^ 

The country south of Ulster, that lay along the river 
toward New York was, to the Federalist eye, quite hopeless. 

'Piatt, pp. 91-92 quoting Poughkeepsie Journal; N. Y. Civil List, 
1882, p. 450. 

* Piatt, p. 83. 

'J. J. Levinson in History of Ulster County (A. T. Qearwater, edi- 
tor), Kingston, 1907, p. 484. 

*N. B. Sylvester, History of Ulster County (Philadelphia, 1880), 
pp. 102, 103; W. Barrett, Old Merchants of New York, vol. iv, pp. 63-64; 
A. T. Clearwater, History of Ulster County, p. 484. 

^History of Delaware County, W. W. Munsell, publisher (N. Y., 
t88o), ch. viii; Jay Gould, History of Delaware County and Border 
Wars of Netv York, Containing a Sketch of the Early Settlements in 
the County and a History of the Late Anti-Rent Difficulties in Delaware 
with Other Historical and Miscellaneous Matter Nez-er Before Pub- 
lished (Roxbury, N. Y.), 1856, chs. xi-xiii. 



48 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Here at the beginning of the centur>' were men of many 
sorts. The great holdings had, most of them, been broken 
into modest farms — the houweries of the Dutch and the 
scattered lands tilled by the descendants of the Palatines, 
whom, more than a century before, Louis XIV had harried 
out of western Germany, and the well-disposed (and 
thrifty) government of England planted in this region 
to gather naval stores.' And here and there were little 
farmsteads of those who had moved across from West- 
chester or come in from the uplands of Connecticut. Such 
people had not been impressed with Hamilton's commercial 
policies, in nation and in state, and cherished no transplanted 
sentiment in favor of the Adams family. Even Newburgh 
which might, like Poughkeepsie, have put some trust in the 
party of the trader, had. interestingly enough, fallen under 
the influence of some free-thinking foreigners, with their 
Society of the Druids and their paper, The Rights of Man. 
and had l^ecome a citadel of infidelity. Here the seed of 
JefTersonian democracy fell upon a fertile soil.^ 

The "Great West" of 1801 began not far from Albany, 
and it was known for many years as largely Democratic, or, 

1 Many of these, as is well known, had tired of their labor for an alien 
state and migrated first to set up for themselves in the fertile Mohawk 
region, where their presence is remembered through such names as 
Palatine Bridge and German Flats, and then moved again to the still 
more inviting valleys of Pennsylvania: see S. H. Cobb. The Story of 
tlie Palatines (N. Y., 1897). 

■^E. M. Ruttenber and L. H. Clarke, History of Orange County 
(Philadelphia. 1881), pp. 127, 245, 250-251. 254-255- The works of 
Thomas Paine and Matthew Tyndall enjoyed a surprising vogue in the 
Newburgh district, while the Congregational Church, the sign and sub- 
stance of New Englandism, never gained a foothold, ibid., pp. 269-270. 
In the time of the embargo Orange County was overwhelmingly 
Republican, ibid., 73-74. When the doubtful Col. Burr could not be 
elected to the legislature or the Constitutional Convention of 1801 from 
New York city, Orange County was selected as a constituency which 
would elect anyone who bore the name Republican. J. D. Hammond. 
Political History, pp. 136, 141. 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE ^g 

to use the official name, Republican. The ruthless marcli 
of General Sullivan against the Iroquois, and the treaties 
which the vanquished chiefs had subsequently signed, had 
opened up the country to the Genesee, and during the last 
decade of the eighteenth century, a growing number of 
white men, man}^ of them from the hills just west of the 
Connecticut, had penetrated far into this wood-land. Much 
has been written of the frontiersman ; often in times past 
he has been pictured as a Cooperesque, romantic hero, 
something more than common stock, with his flashing eye 
and supple, graceful form; perhaps it is as well that this 
figment of the fancy with its impossible heroics, has been 
laid aside as the dead material of literarv^ archaeology. 
Sometimes he appears as turbulent and lawless, finding 
better fellowship with wolves and foxes than with decent 
people in the settled region, or again he is described as a man 
of faith and courage, carrying the torch of civihzation. 
building his academies and churches, the best manhood that 
the east had to contribute. Of these latter pictures both 
must be accounted accurate, though of two separate divis- 
ions in the westward march. Following the first and giving 
way before the last, Timothy Dwight in his extensive travels 
detected an intervening group, steadier in habit than the 
outcast trapi>er. clearing land and building their rude cabins, 
though for want of capital, quite as often losing them again 
to meet the heavy mortgages.' Finally there came from 
the east thrifty, energetic immigrants moving frequently 
in large companies of neighbors or religious congregations. 
New England was, as every student knows, as far from a 
democracy as was Scotland, which it so much resembled, 
and among these last newcomers there were many families 

' Timothy Dwight, Travels in Nezv England and Xezv York (New 
Haven, 1821), xo\. ii, p. 450 ci seq.: L. K. Mathews, Expavsion of Nezv 
England, p. 148. 



50 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

from that precious fraction of society that by tradition ruled 
those commonwealths.' This third element ni the expansion 
of New England was largely Federalist in politics, and one 
may find pure democracy somewhat frowned down in such 
communities as Troy, Utica and Canandaigua, where it 
settled.' 

The stories of the soldiers who had fought against St. 
Leger and Burgoyne, had, as retold in Connecticut, at- 
tracted favorable attention to the Mohawk Valley. Judge 
Hugh White's company of settlers who founded Whites- 
town in the following decade, were the pioneers of such 
civilization in the old west of New York,^ though they were 
soon joined by similar communities who settled Kirkland, 
Utica and Rome. Here in Oneida County at the beginning 
of the century there flourished a group of towns having 
the air and aspect of New England. Yet there were other 
elements, for one leading citizen was a Van Rensselaer 
("the elegance and profuseness of his domestic courtesies" 
were matters of town pride), and the other was Colonel 
Benjamin Walker, who had come from London to New 
York before the war, during which he had become an aid 
to Washington, and had taken up his home in Utica as land 
agent for the Earl of Bath. He was, as might be expected, 
a stout Episcopalian and a Federalist, and had been elected 
in 1800 for a term in Congress.* The enterprise of Utica 
soon expressed itself in manufacturing, so that by the War 

' H. L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century 
(N. Y., 1904), part ii, ch. i. 

2 L. K. Mathews, op. cit., p. 150 (map). 

'Pomroy Jones, Annals and Recollections of Oneida County (Rome, 
N. Y.), 1851, pp. 786, 790; James Macauley, The Natural, Statistical, 
and Civil History of New York (Albany, 1829), vol. iii, pp. 420, 425. 

*M. M. Bagg, The Pioneers of Utica; Being a Sketch of Its Inhabi- 
tants and Its Institutions, with the Civil History of the Place, From 
the Earliest Settlement to the Year 1825— The Era of the Opening of 
the Eric Canal (Utica, 1877), pp. 68-69, 116. 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



51 



of 18 12 industry was well begun. ^ It was fitting that one 
who invested in these enterprises a fortune gained from 
speculation in land values, Thomas R. Gold, was to be for 
many years a tower of strength in the party of the state." 
Almost as influential was Judge Morris S. Miller, who was 
soon to move to Utica from his land agency for Nicholas 
Low in Lowville. By marriage to a daughter of the 
Bleeckers (who somewhat resented this intrusive Yankee) 
he acquired a quarter of a million dollars, and, fastidious in 
dress, eloquent in speech, and unfailing in support to the 
Episcopal Church, he soon engaged the favorable attention 
of a Federalist town, and was sent to serve in Congress.' 

But Judge Jonas Piatt was the county's foremost party 
leader. When in 1809 he carried the western district which 
throughout its ample mileage was thought to be reliably 
Republican, it demonstrated two unquestionable facts: That 
Judge Piatt was the strongest candidate his party could 
present the following year for governor, and also that 
more settlements of the Whitestown type were being 
founded in the west.* Certainly in the first years of 
the centur)^ that type of settlement was rare, the 
conspicuous exceptions being Canandaigua and Geneva," 
which were still the outposts of the new civilization. 
The country was yet new in its society ; Buffalo was 
scarcely founded (though even here a bitter contest 
had begim)*. Rochester was yet an unnamed wilder- 

^ M. M. Bagg, " The Earliest Factories of Oneida," in Transactions 
of the Oneida Historical Society, 1881, p. 114. 

'P. Jones, Annals, p. 795; M. M. Bagg. Pioneers, p. 199; N. Y. 
Journal, April 7, 1810. 

' M. M. Bagg, Pioneers, pp. 236-237; M. S. Miller to John Jay, 
May II, 1809, Jay Correspondence. 

* P. Jones, Annals, p. 791. 

* G. S. Conover, History of Geneva (Geneva, 1879), p. 34. 

* Crisfield Johnson, Centennial History of Erie County (Buffalo, 
1876), pp. 106-108, 116, 117. 



32 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

ness,' and of modern Syracuse there was then but the 
meagre hamlet of Bogardus Corners, stragghng out beside 
the salt wells of the Onondaga Marshes." Of those who 
lived along the jagged, changing line of ultimate settlement, 
many must have shocked good Dr. D wight, and no doubt 
earned the epithet given them by one impatient witness, a 
*' heathenish and dissolute crew." ^ They had no traditions 
which could be opposed to the doctrine of equality. 

An old historian of Oneida, Judge Pomroy Jones, sum- 
marizes thus the early politics of his own section and the 
country to the north : 

After the formation of the county in 1798, it was found to 
contain a Federal majority. Subsequent to the organization 
of St. Lawrence County in 1802, the Democratic party for the 
next two or three years was in the ascendent. In 1805 the 
Counties of Jefferson and Lewis were taken from Oneida, 
which left it with a Federal majority' of twelve to fifteen hun- 
dred. This was a powerful majority, when it is recalled that 
scarcely one-half of the citizens were voters, as the old Con- 
stitution of the State contained that most aristocratic and odious 
provision requiring a freehold qualification of $250 to entitle 
the citizen to the privilege of the elective franchise.* 

St. Lawrence County, whose loss the Oneida Federalists 
no doubt bewailed, was settled almost entirely by companies 
who came across Vermont and Lake Champlain, bringing 
with them a respectful memory of old New England and the 

1 J. M. Parker, The Opening of the Genesee Country, Publications 
of the Rochester Historical Society, 1892, vol. i, pp. 59-66. 

'•'C. E. Smith, Pioneer Times in the Onondaga Country (Syracuse, 
1904), pp. 223, 229-230. 

^G. H. McMaster, History of the Settlement of Steuben County 
(Bath, 1853), pp. 25-31, 78, 89. Much of the land of the so-called 
Holland Patent was opened for settlement only after 1800, Arad 
Thomas, Pioneer History of Orleans County (Albion, 1871), pp. 23-25. 

*P. Jones, Annals and Recollections of Oneida County, pp. 54-55. 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 53 

principles of the Adams family.^ They had able leaders 
of their own, like Roswell Hopkins, who had been a Fed- 
eralist judge in Vermont," besides those who had come 
northward from New York to lead in politics as well as sell 
them land.* It remained, like the counties to the east, 
largely Federalist for many years.* Jefferson and Lewis 
Counties, named, it will be noticed, for two distinguished 
Republicans, and little mourned when severed from Fed- 
eralist Oneida, had been settled in a considerable part by 
foreigners, including Germans, Swiss and Irish, as well as 
a group of Frenchmen who came later, led by the famous 
LeRay de Chaumont, the treasurer of Napoleon.^ Since 
most of these people had taken leave of Europe to escape 
oppression, they were naturally inclined in this new land of 
liberty to take their stand, as soon as they were qualified, 
against those who had supported the Alien Laws of 'ninety-^ 
eight. 

In this age of printed paper, when books and periodicals 
have come from luxuries to be a commonplace of life, when 
travel is within the compass of the leanest purse, when 
education is not only offered freely but is forced upon the 
citizen, it is not easy to imagine how gross and glaring were 
the inequalities among mankind a century ago. Without 
the common school, government by all the people might 
seem to sober sense a reckless and a dangerous experiment 
(though it might be well observed that popular governmeiit 
is what has brought the common school). The doctrine of 

' L. K. Mathews, Expansion of New England, pp. 160-61. 

* F. B. Hough, History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties 
(Albany, 1852), p. 595; N. Y. Civil List, 1889, PP- 422-424. 

' See infra, ch. v. 

*N. Y. Spectator, May 16, 1809, May 13, 1812, May 12, 1813, May 10, 
1815, May IS, 181S, etc. 

* F. B. Hough, History of Lewis County (Albany, i860), pp. 70-73, 
75, 107, 119. 



54 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

democracy had but recently been preached, and men were 
intensely partisan upon the question of its merits ; it seemed 
then a bold innovation and, to those to whom a change 
might mean a loss, a dubious one indeed. But the democrats 
who had shouted their huzzas at the phrase, "All men are 
created equal," had been mightily impressed with the new 
doctrine. They were determined to wrong nobody, but to 
gain their just share of a birthright which the aristocrats, in 
defiance of all the axiomatic principles of the rights of man, 
selfishly withheld. 

The contest in which these lines were sharply drawn was 
made more bitter by reflection from across the sea. For 
once opinion on domestic and on foreign policy so merged 
as to make division perfectly complete. The enthusiasts 
for the equality of man, which contemplated, by the way, 
ample protection for the debtor, were ardent partisans of 
revolutionary France where all their theories seemed justi- 
fied by accomplished facts. The wealth of Federalist mer- 
chants, on the other hand, could be continued and increased 
only when the way was easy to and through the English 
ports, where by tradition of two centuries they found their 
customers. They reasonably desired the triumph of the 
mistress of the seas, and a cordial understanding with the 
British admiralty as to the customs duties and the rules of 
trade. But to be a partisan of England meant to be a par- 
tisan of Burke; no one should tamper with the old safe 
ways by which wealth was preponderantly represented for 
its own protection, and the government so properly con- 
ducted by learned men of leisure should by no fatuous 
philosophy be given over to them that drive oxen and whose 
talk is of bullocks, nor to the carpenters and workmasters. 
To some, at least, not all occupations were of equal honor/ 

1 Cf. Edmund Burke, " Reflections on the French 'Revolution," Works 
(Boston, 1884), vol. iii, pp. 296-298. 



THE COUNTRY-SIDE 55 

This disparity of views, so easily infused with deep emotion, 
was the basis of a bitter party strife, that had certain 
elements of a war of classes. 

Whether one were a Federalist or a Democrat was not 
merely a question of election day, but a matter of concern 
throughout the year, a consideration that entered into the 
commonest business of life. There were permanent political 
clubs that met in frequent conclave in their favorite tav- 
erns ; ^ and sometimes in small communities where accom- 
modations were somewhat limited, the contrast was sig- 
nificant. A citizen of Hudson described the quarters of the 
village Democratic Club as in the lower regions of a dingy 
general store ; there, " round a red hot stove in an atmos- 
phere blue with smoke, seated on old pine benches and 
wooden bottomed chairs, with the dust and cobwebs of 
twenty years undisturbed on the shelves, met the great 
Anti-Federal fathers of the city." But " the Federal Club, 
of which Elisha Williams, one of the most influential men 
in the State was the acknowledged leader, always met in the 
best furnished room of one of the public houses." - Each 
party was a social as well as a political organization, and 
each maintained a well-trained instrumental band drawn 
from its membership/ Prejudice struck very deep in Utica; 
as the gentry of the town, mostly well-to-do and several 
of them college graduates, gathered in the home of Colonel 
William Williams to sip Madeira furnished by that hos- 
pitable publisher,* they liked to chant a ballad written by a 
member of the group, beginning: 

* W. H. Bayles, Old Taverns of New York, p. xvi. 

'G. A. Worth, Randovi Recollections of Albany (and Hudson), 
pp. 48, 51. 

'A. R. Bradley, History of the City of Hudson, pp. 71-72. 
*The mss. diary of William Williams is now in the possession of 
Miss Nelhe WilHams, Utica, N. Y. 



36 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

" The rabble all in council met 
To plan a democratic fete." 

It was not considered " elegant " to be a Democrat in Utica. 
But sometimes the feeling went much further. There 
were certain banks in New York and Albany where a fol- 
lower of Jefferson could not be accommodated.'' When in 
Trenton Falls a woolen factory^ was begun in 1812, when 
good cloth could fetch ten dollars a yard, it was expressly 
stated that no Democrat would be permitted to buy stock. "' 
In Rhinebeck, Dominie Romeyn refused to give the name 
of Thomas Jefferson to an infant presented at the font. 
The dominie was a follower of John Adams, and the help- 
less parents had to stand by while their son was christened 
John. * In the country districts life was, in its isolation, 
somewhat primitive. There were few of those diversions 
which to-day enrich existence, and emotional energies seek- 
ing for expression might easily be confused with political 
conviction, to make well-marked and lasting feuds. Es- 
pecially was this true in a generation trained to religious 
dogmatism and sharp categories of wrong and right. Judge 
Woodworth wdio, in the first years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, had seen boycotts and frequent violence grow^ out of 
party hatred in the town of Troy, wrote gratefully long 
after of the improvement he had witnessed. When friends 
complained that conditions in the early 'fifties were not all 
they should be, the pious man repeated the counsel of Solo- 
mon: " Say not then, what is the Cause that former Days 
were better than these? For thou dost not inquire wiselv 
concerning this." * 

' M. M. Bagg, Pioneers, p. 159. 

*J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, pp. 325. 332. 
®J. F. Seymour, Centennial Address Delivered at Trenton, N. Y. 
(Utica, 1877), p. 28. 
*H. M, Morse, Historic Old Rhinebeck (Rhinebeck, 1908), pp. 240-243. 
•John Woodworth, Reminiscences of Troy, i/gcyiSo^, p. 44. 



CHAPTER III 
Rulers Deposed 

It was once observed of Aaron Burr that his sole claim 
to virtue lay in the fact that he himself had never claimed 
it.^ The frankness of this gifted man as to his rules of 
private conduct, no doubt retained the loyalty of friends 
who had been won by his engaging manners, yet the his- 
torian cannot but wish that he had left behind some serious 
defence of his political career, that a better case might be 
made out in his behalf than seems warranted by the evidence 
of deeds. In want of any such, the judgment of his motives 
must be formed on inference, and complete agreement 
here may scarcely be expected. That in 1801 he intrigued 
for the presidency, when by an accidental tie he seemed to 
have as many votes as Jefferson, is to be gathered only from 
a train of circumstances. He held mysterious conferences 
with Federalists, arrangements were concluded by his fol- 
lowers with that party's congressmen from doubtful states, 
his chief lieutenant was allowed to spread a false report as 
to opinion in New York, while he himself assumed a shifting 
and equivocal position and took no steps to check the move- 
ments which he must have known were managed in his 
name; this ill-timed reticence may have thwarted his am- 
bition. When the choice of the electors of the country was 
properly expressed by Congress and Jefferson declared 
elected, Aaron Burr took up his humbler duties with his 
party's confidence in his integrity hopelessly impaired.^ It 

' W. A. Duer, Reminiscences of an Old New Yorker, p. 24. 

* James Parton, The Life and Times of Aaron Burr (Boston, 1876), 
ch. xvi ; and the excellent account in J. D. Hammond, History of 
Political Parties in Netv York State, vol. i, pp. 139-143. 

57 



58 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



was known that certain New York Federalists, like Judge 
Cooper and David A. Ogden, had been his active agents in 
the contest at the capital ; ^ when, early in the following 
year, he was put prominently forward at a Federalist ban- 
quet, to the surprise of his enemies and the consternation 
of his friends,^ it was obvious that his Republicanism might 
well be called in question. 

In the state campaign in 1801 the followers of Clinton, 
Livingston and Burr stood united,^ but the new gov- 
ernment had scarcely been inaugurated when the proscrip- 
tion of the Burrites. along with the Federalists, was begun. 
The new^ Council of /\ppointment, directed by DeWitt 
Clinton, the ambitious nephew of the governor, and Am- 
brose Spencer, recently apostatized from Federalism, left 
few offices in the hands of those who had served the late 
administration, and consistently refused appointments to 
all followers of Burr.* A pamphlet warfare was begun, not 
surpassed in all the annals of American campaigns. A 
certain John Wood, who had written a History of the Ad- 
ministration of John Adams in the Republican interest, par- 
ticularly of Burr, was now requested by his patron to 
suppress the most offensive passages, for the purpose, it 

'"Aristides," An Examination of the Various Charges Exhibited 
Against Aaron Burr, etc., pp. 56-57 (see infra). 

*A full account of this episode is given by J. P. Van Ness in a letter 
to his brother W. P. Van Ness, April 2, 1802, Van Ness Mss., N. Y. 
Public Library. 

'A broadside (N. Y. Public Library) "To the Independent Electors 
of the State of New York," 1801, is signed, among others, by John 
Swartwout and Oliver Phelps, who became Burrites ; Elisha Jenkins 
and Adam Comstock, who became Clintonians ; and Ebenezer Purdy 
and Erastus Root, who became Lewisites. Burr, had, of course, been 
very active in the campaign, Hamilton to J. A. Bayard, February 22, 
1801, Hamilton's Works, (Lodge edition), vol. viii, pp. 589-590. 

*J. D. Hammond, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 170184; Henry Adams, History 
of the United States, vol. i. pp. 288-289. 



RULERS DEPOSED 



59 



was charged, of making easier Burr's approach to the New 
England FederaHsts. This charge was published early in 
1802 in A Narrative of the Suppression by Colonel Burr of 
the History, etc., by a Citizen of New York, who turned 
out to be James Cheetham, the editor of a paper lately 
started in the cause of Clinton. Wood and others replied 
defending Burr, while the author of "the Narrative" re- 
turned not only an Antidote to John Wood's Poison, but 
likewise a full View of the Political Conduct of Aaron 
Burr, Esquire, purporting to trace (not always with nice 
accuracy) his partisan irregularities during the past twelve 
years. Wood published a rejoinder, but Burr's cause found 
an abler champion in William P. Van Ness, whase ar- 
raignment signed "Aristides " was marked by ferocity no 
less than by finesse. It has been declared unrivalled since 
the days of Junius, and it circulated more widely through 
the country than any earlier pamphlet except Common 
Sense.^ That these editors and pamphleteers looked upon 

'J. D. Hammond, op. cit., vol. i, p. 189; see also the analysis and 
criticism of the pamphlet by D. S. Alexander, A Political History of the 
State of New York, and New York Spectator, January 11, 1804. This 
contest, of course, belongs only incidentally to the present narrative and 
the contents of these brochures, however illustrative of the political 
writing of the time, cannot here be summarized. The order of appear- 
ance of the principal items is as follows: "A Citizen of New York" 
(James Cheetham) A Narrative of the Suppression by Colonel Burr 
of the History of the Administration of John Adams (N. Y., 1802) ; 
■'A Yeoman," Strictures upon the Narrative of the Suppression by 
Col. Burr of Wood's History, etc. (N. Y., 1802) ; A View of the Politi- 
cal Conduct of Aaron Burr, Esq., by the Author of the " Narrative " 
(N. Y., 1802) ; John Wood, A Correct Statement of the Various 
Sources from which the History of the Administration of John Adams 
zuas Compiled and the Motives for its Suppression by Col. Burr; zvith 
Some Observations o?i a Narrative by a Citizen of New York (N. Y., 
1802); "Warren" (Cheetham) An Antidote to John Wood's Poison 
(N. Y., 1802) ; John Wood, A Full Exposition of the Clintonian Faction 
(Newark, 1802) ; James Cheetham, Nine Letters on the Subject of 
Aaron Burr's Political Defection (N. Y., 1803); "Aristides " (W. P. 



6o ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

their controversy as something graver than a war of rhet- 
oric, was evidenced by two duels fought among them, and 
by other challenges which were with difficulty satisfied out- 
side the code. The Republican party in New York was 
cloven squarely into two unequal parts — the Jeffersonians. 
now in complete control, and the followers of Aaron Burr. 
The "little band," as Cheetham called his enemies, con- 
tained some politicians of good reputation, who found much 
to admire in the undoubted talent of the Vice-President ; but 
with them were associated, by common acceptation, "nearly 
all the needy and desperate adventurers in the community," '■^ 
augmented, one by one, by those who failed of offices at 
the hand of the discriminating Clinton Council of Appoint- 
ment.'' By most of the distinguished leaders of the Fed- 
eralist party Burr was despised and spurned. Hamilton, 
in 1800, had called him "as true a Cataline as ever met in 
midnight conclave;"* Morris, as Senator in Washington, 
had "greatly disapproved and openly disapproved of the 
attempt to choose Mr. Burr;"'^ Robert Troup had scored 
him as a sneak.® They had exulted at beholding the breach 
he made among their enemies, until they saw how dangerous 
was the fascination of this outcast Democrat when turned 
toward their own following. 

Van Ness), An Examination of the Various Charges Exhibited Against 
Aaron Burr, Esq., Vice-President of the United States; and A Develop- 
ment of the Characters and Views of his Political Opponents (Phila- 
delphia, 1803) ; James Cheetham. A Reply to Aristides (N. Y., 1804). 

' Clinton's Letters to Henry Post, Elarper's Magazine, vol. 1, p. 565, 
and Alexander, op. cit., p. 128. 

* Theodore Sedgwick to Rufus King, August 24, 1802, Life and 
Correspondence of Rufus King. 

*Cheetham's View, p. 94. 

*To James A. Bayard, August 6, 1800, Works (Lodge), vol. viii, p. 562. 

*A. C. Morris, Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, toI. ii, 
p. 404. 

®To R. King, April 24, 1802, King Correspondence. 



RULERS DEPOSED 5j 

Federalism itself seemed dead; to call it from the tomb 
would need a sorcerer. It is not surprising that in their 
extremity the great mass of Federalists were giving ear to 
such a man as Aaron Burr. In spite of Hamilton and others 
an understanding was effected. "The long anticipated 
coalition between a few pretended Republicans and the 
Federalists," wrote Chcetham in the spring of 1802, " ap- 
pears at length to be formed." ' The old leaders mi^ht 
seek to brand this as a falsehood, and recite sarcastic 
requiems over the V^ice-President as a " gone man," but 
Hamilton admitted that, " unluckily we are not as neutral 
to the quarrel as we ought to be." - Yet nothing more could 
rightly be expected, for, sulking in defeat, these leaders 
had failed to keep their party firm in doctrine. In man\- 
districts now no candidates were named for Congress or 
the legislature;^ and it was not surprising that lieutenants 
and subalterns would bring in that mean, enfeebling policy 
of offering themselves as makeweight between the factions 
of the enemy. Nothing could more strikingly illustrate their 
consciousness of bankruptcy; such wretched huckstering 
soon cost them the respect of everyone, not leaving out 
themselves.* 

Tn 1804 the Federalist leaders determined on a rallv. 
Rufus King, who had recently returned from England, was 
a man on whom as candidate for governor they might unite 
with full enthusiasm. He was besought by letters and ad- 
dresses, including those from old associates in Massachu- 

' .v. 1'. American Citisen, May 3, i8o_'. 

"To R. King, June 3, 1802. King Corrcspondrncr: and Troup to 
King, June 6. and December 12, 1802, ibid. 

*N. Y. Evening Post. .April 27. 1802. 

' When in 1803 the Federalists in New York City were cheered into 
putting up some candidates for the assembly, the Burrites rallied osten- 
tatiously to their support, N. Y. Evening Post, April 26, 1803, and 
American Citi::en, April 28. 1803. 



62 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

setts; but in these last he soon detected that a Federalist 
governor of New York would be expected to take part in a. 
conspiracy, already hatched and well developed in New 
England, for a secession of the northern group of states. 
To such proceedings he would give no countenance and, 
though personal ambition might thus have been well served, 
concluded to content himself with the barren honor of the 
nomination for Vice-President.^ In this disappointment to 
the party Burr saw his opportunity. Full of sounding 
promises, he had himself put up for governor. Overtures 
were made to him by the most desperate of the intriguers, 
who found him ready for co-operation.' Some substantial 
county leaders of the Republicans also, such as Peter B. 
Porter of Ontario. John Van Ness Yates of Albany, 
Senator James Burt of Orange and others, came out 
strongly in his favor.^ 

The Livingstons and Clintons, who still could be consid- 
ered Jeffersonians (for the Virginia interest was always 
joined against the most powerful Democrat in New York 
state), hearing that George Clinton now sought the vice- 
presidency as a kind of respectable retirement, nominated 
as their candidate for governor. Chancellor John Lansing, 
who had been prominent in public life since colonial days. 
However, when he subsequently found that if successful 
he would be expected to be but a passive instrument in the 
hand of DeWitt Clinton, this gentleman refused to be con- 
tinued as a nominee, although his reasons were kept secret 
for three years. After some deliberation and balancing of 

'T. Sedgwick to Hamilton, and Hamilton to King, Hamilton's IVorks 
(J. C. Hamilton edition), vol. vi, p. 553; King to Hamilton, February 
24, and March i, 1804, King Correspondence; H. C. Lodge, Life of 
George Cabot (Boston, 1878), p. 447. 

2 Henry Adams, Documents Relating to New England Federalism 
(Boston, 1877), p. 354- 

* J. D. Hammond, op. cit., vol. i, p. 203. 



RULERS DEPOSED 5^ 

names, there was selected as a substitute, Chief Justice 
Morgan Lewis, the brother-in-law of Chancellor Livingston, 
a man whose three score years and amiable and easy-going 
temper seemed to promise pliability. Of one thing Ham- 
ilton was certain, that no honorable man could vote for 
Aaron Burr. In a meeting of his partisans convened in 
Albany, he had advised them, in case they could themselves 
put up no candidate, to give support to Lansing, upon whose 
honesty at least they might rely.' When the chancellor 
was no longer to be had, he tried again to induce Rufus 
King to stand.- His efforts were in vain, he then advised his 
friends to vote for Lewis, although the prospect of success 
under such a leadership seemed far less bright.^ 

The campaign was one of the most hotly fought the state 
has ever seen. How many Republicans Burr could pull 
away from Clinton and how many Federalists from Ham- 
ilton, was the question to be answered. Some papers of the 
latter party, like the Nezv York Commercial Advertiser, 
had been willing to support Lansing as one who stood su- 
perior to his associates, though they still would have 
preferred a nomination of their own;-* but when his name 
was exchanged for that of Morgan Lewis, who was looked 
upon as a mere place-man of the Livingstons, they slowly 
drew away. First there was some criticism of the manner 
of his nomination, for it had been by legislative caucus, a 
mode not yet familiar. The next month they were speaking 
of Burr's strength in the west; and two weeks later were 

';V. Y. Morning Chronicle, February 17, 1804. 

'Hamilton to King, February 24, 1804, Hamilton's Works (J. C. 
Hamilton), vol. vi, p. 559. 

^ J. D. Hammond, op. cit., vol. i, p. 209. 

*N. Y. Spectator, February 25, 1804; "The Livingstons are at all 
events to be excluded . . . The family has seen its day, and has served 
Its purposes," ibid., January 18, 1804, see also in this issue their reasons 
why a Federalist ticket would have been preferable. 



64 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

among his strong supporters.' The greatest single in- 
iiuence in producing this opinion was a broadside signed 
" Plain Truth," which appeared early in March. When 
newspapers were scarce and costly, the broadside was of 
great importance as an instrument of propaganda. A hand- 
bill, circulated from a corner store or pasted to a tree or 
fence post at a cross-roads, was sure to reach an audience 
which party orators could seldom gather; important poli- 
ticians driving out among constituents did not disdain to 
stack the dodgers carefully beneath their gig-seats to parcel 
out among the faithful. 

The author of "Plain Truth" declared that "we already 
see the extent of power and of influence possessed by fami- 
lies who monopolize most of the valuable and influential 
situations in the state; who are sufificiently numerous and 
suflficiently eager to officer the whole of them." He 
enumerated in two columns fourteen such places held by 
members of the Clinton family with $53,500 paid as salaries, 
and twelve held by the '* Noble Family of Livingston " 
Avorth $33,950.- This species of attack was nothing new; 
" Lord Livingston's " rapacity had been a theme of scrib- 
blers even before the war.'' Ever since the chancellor, dis- 
appointed at being overlooked by Washington in apportion- 
ing the major offices of state, had, in 1791. called i^n his 
numerous kin and renounced the Federalist party, the ob- 
loquy of the apostate had been settled on this house.* The 

'iV. Y. Spectator. March 10, 24. 1804. 

*This broadside is in the collection of the N. Y. Public Library. 
These figures were corrected in a subsequent edition to read $49,750 
and $33,950. 

■'A. M. Keys, Cadzvalladcr Cold en. p. 362. 

* It was a " House of Republican Nobility of which one of the young- 
lings had been heard to say. with true democratic humility, that to be 
born with their family name is a fortune to any man." iV. Y. Evening 
Post, February 26, 1802. 



RULERS DEPOSED 65 

Clintons, though without the prestige ot their high-born 
colleagues, had won political success and married wisely. 
until to be a cousin of DeWitt was thought to be a pass- 
port to high station. The Federalist papers had long in- 
veighed against these two ambitious families and their 
greed for salaries;^ men of that party had themselves been 
so berated as aristocrats, they seized upon this opportunity 
to turn the epithet upon their foes. The figures of " Plain 
Truth,'' then, gave the theme of the campaign. 

Colonel Burr was introduced by his supporters as one 
whose chief claim to the public confidence lay in the fact 
that he was unencumbered by connections.' He was a 

single man, like Mr. Jefferson, having no family, should he be 
chosen Governor, to provide for out of the public Treasury, or 
to distract his executive attention from the calm, undisturbed 
contemplation of public utility, and who by the late sale of his 
property, for the honest payment of his debts, is become now 
free from all pecimiary embarrassments, with a comfortable 
residuary independency.^ 

Surely such an introduction would fall strangely on a mod- 
ern ear. Against Morgan Lewis the Burrites brought up 
not only his membership in a " numerous and pride-bloated 
family." but also his caucus nomination. The public seemed 
yet to consider party politics, with its inevitable discipline, 
as something vicious in the state. 

Our representatives were sent [complained another liandbillj 
not to make our governors, but to make our laws; and witli 

'For example. .V. }'. Evening Post, April 15, May i, 1802; April 28. 
1803. 

-See broadside, "To All Independent Electors" (N. Y. Public 
Library). 

^ Broadside, " Pretentions upon which Colonel Burr merits the free 
suffrage of his Fellow-Citizens," and " Jefferson & Burr against the 
Clinton & Livingston Combination." Of course Jefferson was, in fact, 
a widower with married daughters. 



66 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

blushes have many of them confessed, that they were drilled 
like soldiers, and compelled to sign the nomination, under pain 
of being denounced and calumniated in the newspapers and 
incurring in every shape the persecution of DeWitt Clinton.^ 

That Lewis once had been a Federalist, abandoning a de- 
clining party and attaching himself to the strongest, was 
further cause to hate him." " Toby Tickler's " campaign 
paper The Corrector thresiied tiie charges over day by day. 

This shower of bills was returned in kind by the Lewisites. 
" Plain Truth's" statistics were branded as a fabric woven 
half of lies. " A Republican and no Burrite" declared the 
total of the " family " salaries cited would not foot to more 
than $35,000, which he claimed was less than was received 
from the state treasury by the nearest minions, or the " little 
band," of Colonel Burr himself. The writer then attempted. 
an elaborate rebuttal to the estimates of his opponents, 
maintaining, certainly with want of candor or of infonna- 
tion, that the appointive office of the mayor of New York 
(remunerated, as it was, by every kind of fee) was worth 
scarcely a third of the stated $15,000.^ " Republican 
Economy," declared that all freeholders jealous of the 
public trust should refuse support to Colonel Burr, as he 
was in truth the candidate of the spendthrift Federalist 
party. Other broadsides then rehearsed, with gross par- 
ticularity, Burr's miserable amours (that is, a number of 
them), naming streets and houses.* All that had been said 

1 Broadsides, "An Elector," " To All Independent Electors." 

2 Broadside. " Republicans Attend." 

*C/. N. Y. Spectator, February 11, 1804; J. D. Hammond, op. cit., 
vol. i, pp. 180, 263, 291 ; Robert Troup to Rufus King, January 12, 1810, 
King Correspondence. One broadside went further, declaring that the 
Burrites, among them, got $59,000, and as to the mayoralty " the pre- 
decessor of the present mayor lost money by the office, and Mr. 
Clinton may not have a cent"; from "Republican Measure" (loc. cit.) 

* Broadside, "The Following Hand-bill" (loc. cit.) 



RULERS DEPOSED 6/ 

against "the Cataline " by Federalists in 1801 was now 
reprinted in great glee by their opponents. Men that he 
had cheated, and men that he had bullied when he served 
as colonel in the war, were induced to write their wretched 
statements, to be scattered broadcast through the state. On 
the other hand, the Burrites claimed that office-holders were 
generally laid under contribution to provide a fund for 
bribery, and were warned that, in case of victory for Burr, 
they would all, as Judge Spencer had bluntly said, be obliged 
to go to work.^ Clintonian broadsides printed lists of dis- 
appointed office seekers who now joined the " little band." " 
Clinton sent his agents through the state who discovered a 
trick that afterward became more common: "In the 
Southern Counties it is rumored that the Western Counties 
are favorable to their candidate. In the western parts the 
same falsehood is related of the Southern. The middle is 
informed of his ascendancy in the Eastern and the Eastern 
is told of his prodigious force in the Middle." ^ 

Such was the character of a campaign which many 
thought would lead to bloodshed ;* a quarrel of men for 
profit, in which apparently no word was spoken as to 
measures or the larger concerns of public policy. Its sordid 
details make unpleasant reading, and yet may no doubt be 
studied with instruction by those who cry decadence in our 
modem day, and grieve because our politics has lapsed from 
pristine purity. In the decade of which this year was near 
the middle, the civic honor of New York fell to a bottom 
not passed between the times of those two models of cor- 
ruption. Lord Combury and Grand Sachem Tweed. In 

'J. D. Hammond, op. cit., vol. i, p. 177. 

* See, for example, a list of forty-one in "To Genuine Republicans" 
(M. Y. Public Library). 

^DcWitt Ciinton Mss., Letterbook I, March 14, 1804 et seq. 

* N. Y. Spectator, January 25, 1804, 



68 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

this adversity King, Jay and Morris spoke unheeded, while 
weaker partisans forsook their leaders to run after a god 
strange indeed. 

The Chntons and Livingstons were victorious by a vote of 
nearly three to two. A comparison of the returns with 
those for senators in 1803, discloses that for ever}'' Re- 
publican who cast his vote for Burr, a Federalist, convinced 
by Hamilton, supported Lewis.' Burr was now a man 
without a party. He had been taken by the Federalists only 
as a war-chief, as the towns of Italy had taken Braccio and 
Sforza. to fight their battles for them. In such arrange- 
ments victory alone may be a ground of permanence; and 
Burr had lost. Before the final canvass the relations 
between Burr and his Federalist following were becom- 
ing strained, and after it the feeling grew into an 
open quarrel." Burr himself well knew that although 
Hamilton had not been often in the public prints, his 
had been the hand that had withheld sufficient Fed- 
eralists to compass the defeat. Before the campaign had 
been fairly started he had written to his daughter, 
Tl-ieodosia, that Hamilton would favor anybody " who 
could have a chance against A. B." * Apparently this 
strange and reckless egotist now thought the world too 
small a place for two such rivals ; the duel that he provoked, 
with its tragic end, is too well known to be recorded here. 
But if the enlightened leadership of Hamilton was taken 
from the Federalists, so likewise was the baleful influence of 

* D. S. Alexander, Political History, vol. i, p. 138. 

*F. A. Bloodgood to John Tayler, March 26, 1804, Taykr Mss. 
(N. Y. Public Library) ; "Already do the Burrites & the Federalists 
begin to quarrel among themselves. The former charge the latter 
with deception, & they retaliate with saying that the Burr party are a 
' Little Band ' indeed." Maturin Livingston to Charles D. Cooper, 
April 30, 1804, Cooper Mss. (N. Y. Public Library). 

^To Theodosia Burr Alston, February 16, 1804. M. L. Davi.s. Memoir 
of Burr (N. Y., 1837), vol. ii, p. 277. 



RULERS DEPOSED 69 

Burr, who in the scorn of a whale generation soon became 
a man without a country. 

It was characteristic of the Federalist leaders that their 
next united effort should be in the interest of a bank, in 
1803 a number of gentlemen belonging chietly to that party 
had, as a private company, begun a banking business in the 
city of New York. The legislature, believing that such 
enterprises should not be carried on without a charter, at 
their next session had passed a restraining act on private 
banking, though excepting the Merchant's Bank, as this was 
called, until the spring of 1805.'^ Now the Clintons (which 
is to say DeWitt) had acquired control of the Manhattan 
Company, a bank in New York city, and their spokesmen 
in the legislature soon gave notice that no charter would 
be granted to a rival if their opposition could prevent it. 
The able agents of the Merchant's Bank, however, by liberal 
use of money, as a subsequent investigation clearly showed, 
succeeded in their project, and it was a matter of no small 
interest to the state that Governor Morgan Lewis forsook 
his old Clintonian associates to express his full approval of 
the charter. No exception could be taken to the arguments 
upon which he defended his opinion, but to Mayor Clinton 
and his brother-in-law. Judge Ambrose Spencer, all argu- 
ment was frivolous ; the Livingstons had revolted, the coali- 
tion was at an end, henceforth these " two lordly families " 
were to be as Capulet and Montague. To allow the leader 
to be with his following in person, DeWitt Clinton was 
made senator from the southern district.^ The Livingstonsi 
were declared schismatic and were denominated Lewisites 

* Cf. broadsides, "Anthropos " and " Wm. I. Vredenburgh to his Con- 
stituents" (N. Y. Public Library); N. Y. Spectator, April 17, 1805 1 
J. D. Hammond, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 332 et seq. 

^ See broadside, "Address to the Republicans of the State of New 
York, April 23, 1805" (N. Y. P. L.), giving the resolutions of a public 
meeting of Clintonians in New York city, Theodorus Bailey, chairman. 



yo ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

or Quids. For years the state would see-saw back and 
forth, at each turn dumping out the office-holders of the 
faction which could not hold the Council of Appointment.' 
The Federalists at first looked on with impartial exulta- 
lion at the troubles of their opponents. " Our State 
concerns continue to be an object of contest with the 
Demagogues of the day," wrote Robert Troup. " Dema- 
gogues Clinton & Co. by the superiority of the manoeuvres, 
have carried a council of appointment against the wishes 
and efforts of Demagogues Lewis & Co." ^ In different 
sections, notably in New York city, Federalist groups ap- 
peared with apparently the health and vigor of old times, 
and called to mind their former glory : 

Who rescued the nation from the imbecility and anarchy of the 
old confederation? Who proposed and advocated the con- 
stitution of the United States ? Who carried that constitution 
into operation, and by whose efforts was the country raised in 
a few years, from a state of disorder and bankruptcy, to a 
proud eminence of dignity and prosperity?^ 

Yet shrewd spectators doubted their ability to cope with 
Clinton by themselves. " The feds, appear sanguine here," 
wrote John Swartwout to his fellow Burrite, William P. Van 
Ness, " but I think have not the stamina of exertion in 
them. Their strongest men have held back, Rufus King 
for instance. This I think evinces that the leaders do not 
believe in success." '^ The Burrites had themselves been 
sadly split. In December 1805, some of their leaders 
effected a bargain of peace with the Clintonians. but in 

»£. g. the office of secretary of state between 1793 and 1813, as 
recorded in the N. Y. Civil List, 1881, p. 157- 

»To Rufus King, February 3, 1806, King Correspondence. 

'Address in the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 19, 1806. 

*J[ohn] S[wartout] to W. P. Van Ness, April 18, 1806, Van Ness 
Mss. 



RULERS DEPOSED 71 

February, four days after this was publicly announced, 
many who could not stomach such a feast of union met 
with New York city Lewisites in Martling's Long Room, 
to pledge undying hatred to Clinton and his men. These 
" Martling Men," soon finding their direction in the 
sachems of the Tammany Society, seldom faltered in their 
fight until their foe had passed beyond this life.^ When 
war was thus openly declared between Clintonians and 
Lewisites, Swartwout's prophecy was proved correct. The 
Federalists under William W. Van Ness (the brilliant 
cousin of " Aristides "), despite all pleas for strict neu- 
trality.^ began to give support to poor Governor Lewis, 
whose endowments were not those of a self-reliant leader 
and who already had sought their counsel in private con- 
ferences.^ All this, the Clintonians declared, did not surprise 
them ; they had seen " men having a great interest in the 
community " gravitating toward the Livingstons, and it 
was to be expected that the Livingstons would turn toward 
the Federalists.* 

More and more the Federalists were convinced that their 

'J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, passim. The Burrites who 
negotiated with Clinton soon found that he recognized no obligation 
on his part, and came to hope that the Federalists would try a contest 
independently, thinking that they might detach the governor from his 
family shackles, and, with their better art and energy, become them- 
selves the leaders against Clinton. 

'"'Another Federalist" in A''. Y. Spectator, March i, 1806, and " Fabri- 
cius," ibid.. May 3, 1806. 

'"Judge Benson will tell you the precious confessions which Lewis 
is constantly making when alone with federalists. I have listened until 
my contempt for the governor has been lost in my pity for the man." 
Robert Troup to Rufus King, February 11, 1806, King Correspondence. 

■* See broadside "To the Republicans of the State of New York" 
.April 3, 1806 (N. Y. P. L.) signed by DeWitt Clinton, Adam Comstock, 
John Tayler, Nicholas Staats, Jedediah Peck and 55 other members 
of assembly. 



72 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

policy of opportunism must be continued. Colonel Robert 
Troup, a well-informed observer at the capital in the early 
days of 1807, came to this conclusion: 

.\s to the situation of the Federalists, although it is better than 
it was, yet it is by no means such as to enable us to elect a 
Governor from our own party. For the present we must be 
content to rest our hopes of a future Federal State administra- 
tion on the fall of the Democratic party by the weight of its own 
vices and divisions. To let the former take their natural 
course and to give root and vigor to the latter seem to be the 
melancholy course which genuine patriotism presents.^ 

Too much must not be expected of the governor. Ex- 
communicated from the Democratic fold, he must realize 
that what support he might receive from Federalists would 
not come from any personal respect, but in the hope that 
he might be a useful means to bring again the reign of 
Federalism. Although they might set hope on being 
granted a supreme court judge, let them look for little more 
from the Lewisite Council which would soon be chosen, 
since 

Federal apijointments would stamp the Governor's adminis- 
tration with so strong a character of Federalism, as to shake 
the confidence, and endanger the support of his democratic 
friends. It is said that the union in the 5th ward at the last 
election in New York, and the subsequent voting of the alder- 
man and assistant alderman of that ward with the Federalists, 
has much injured the Governor's cause in the country. 

Troup thus suggested that King warn his too high-tempered 
friends that they ought to bear inevitable disappointment 
with proper fortitude. This view Van Vechten and others 
of the calmer leaders were well known to share." On the 

'Troup to King, January 6, 1807, King Correspondence. 
■'Ibid. 



RULERS DEPOSED J3 

other hand some aspirants were restless, like Peter Jay 
Munro, who " squinted at the Mayoralty of New York." ^ 

The Council went to Lewis, the Federalists, as prophe- 
sied, supporting all his candidates, thus making possible 
success." In equally avoiding the Clintonians and the Fed- 
eralists, the Council's choice was limited, and many of the 
appointments gave good ground for ridicule. One member 
of the Council, John Nicholas, lately from Virginia, was for 
a straight-forward open course, choosing always that sup- 
porter of the administration who might seem best qualified ; 
but, observes Judge Hammond, the historian, " it was im- 
possible for him to understand the sinuosities of New York 
politics." ^ Some Federalists in disappointment were for 
breaking off entirely with Lewis, though Troup, on his part, 
was as much disgusted with some who had demeaned them- 
selves in office-seeking.* Judge Van Ness, who in his war 
on Clinton through the eastern counties, now and then grew 
impatient because not all the Federalists would discover 
genuine enthusiasm for the cause of Lewis, admitted that 
"If we lose the election it is because the temper and views 
of our party have been entirely misunderstood and wan- 
tonly sported with by the Council." ^ 

By the middle of March 1807, there was begun a move- 
ment to throw off their connection with the Lewisites and 

' Troup to King, January 26. 1807, King Correspondence. 

^Ibid., January 27, 1807. 

'J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, p. 245. 

* Troup to King, February 17, 1807, King Correspondence. Lckvis' 
reappointment of his son-in-law, Maturin Livingston, who was un- 
popular among the better lawyers, as recorder of New York city, 
and Dr. Thomas Tillotson, his brother-in-law, as secretary of state, 
provoked much opposition. 

*W. W. Van Ness to Sol. Van Rensselaer, March 18, 1807, Mrs. 
C. V. R. Bonney, A Legacy of Historical Gleanings (Albany, 1875), 
vol. J, pp. 158-159- 



74 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



give all attention to the party candidates for the legislature. 
'' Let the Federal Republicans once more rouse from their 
slumbers," it was urged.^ A pamphlet soon was circulated 
as Hamilton's Advice; or an enquiry into the propriety and 
consistency of Gov. Lewis' being supported by the Fed- 
eralists, while they oppose the election of all his friends; ^ 
but the party papers answered, that the author " ought to 
weigh well the consequence of putting forth any opinions, 
which, so far as they may have any effect, may divide, dis- 
tract, and of course, weaken the Federal party in this crisis." 
Individuals might decide their courses as they liked, but he 
who would detach others from the body of the party, would 
so far scatter and diffuse its energies.^ Support to Lewis- 
ites was justified upon high grounds of patriotism. 

Are the duties of the Federalists [inquired an editor] confined 
to the welfare of the party? Are our professions of regard for 
the general good, false and elusive? . . . On the contrary are 
we not bound in duty to ourselves and to the public, to give 
our votes in favor of the party or the man, who, in our view 
would do the least mischief to the state.^ 

" To give our votes to neither," it was later said, "was to 
permit the stronger of the two to succeed, and was equiv- 
alent in its consequences to our giving him our direct and 
effective support." ^ Their consciences thus quieted, they 
proceeded very gingerly to give their aid to Lewis against 
Daniel D. Tompkins, who was thought to be a figure-head 
for Clinton. In what would now be called the keynote 
speech. Richard Harison refrained from mentioning the 

'AT. F. Spectator, March i8, 1807. 

' N. Y. 1807, cited in A'. Y. Evening Post, March 22, 1807. 
^A'^. Y. Evening Post, March 22, 23; A^ }'. Commercial Advertiser, 
March 23 ; A''. F. Spectator, March 24. 
* Zachariah Lewis in the N. F. Spectator, March 28, 1807. 
'^N. Y. Evening Post, March 26, 1807. 



RULERS DEPOSED 



75 



governor by name, but in a hesitating and half-hearted way- 
suggested that of their enemies one part was better than 
the other/ During April Federalists in Albany acted os- 
tensibly as individuals in joining Lewisites against the 
other faction, as for instance, in the rescue of the charter of 
Columbia College from destruction by the Clinton men. 
But the combination wore the aspect of something shame- 
ful and clandestine; the Lewisites were pledged to the sup- 
port of Federalists in the west, but the arrangement was 
hinted at in whispers as if those who knew were all con- 
spirators." It was in a brief resurgence of their self-respect 
that the Federalists named Rufus King to head their ticket 
for the assembly. As soon as the name of this distinguished 
statesman was presented to the public, the columns of the 
Clinton press vv^ere solidly drawn up against him; but to- 
understand their principal attacks one must consider an 
issue which came to play no little part in New York state, 
the alien vote and its antagonism to the Federalists. 

England's long misgovernment of Ireland has been of 
consequence to many nations in driving Irishmen across the 
seas; but to none more than to our own, and here to no 
state more than to New York. These immigrants who 
could so easily adapt themselves to novel circumstances, did 
not need the mutual support of great embarkations and close 
settlements; they came in steadily, family by family, scat- 
tering here and there, though many stayed within the city. 
so that in the last days of the colony Irish names were be- 
coming common.^ With the setting up of the new nation 

' N. Y. Evening Post, March 26, 1807. 

^ Troup to King, April 7, 1807, King Correspondence. 

^" Irish Colonists in New York," Proceedings of the New York State 
Historical Association, vol. vii, pp. 94-123. The roster of provincial 
troops of Nevir York in the French and Indian War show^s a number af 
pages where a fifth are Irish names, see Collections of the New York 
Historical Societv, 1891. 



76 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

it seemed clear that many more would come, and in the 
apprehension that political rights so dearly bought might 
be too cheaply shared with aliens, the Tammany Society, as 
early as May 12th. 1791, refused its offices to the "adopted 
citizens." ' The troubles of 'ninety-eight sent more exiles 
to America, some of them, like Thomas Addis Emmett and 
William James MacNevin, gentlemen of finest culture, 
whose tastes, perhaps, would have allied them with the 
aristocracy, but whose revolutionary training as United 
Irishmen directed all their sympathies toward the policies 
of individualism. It was not surprising that they should 
enter with enthusiasm into the war on " Anglomen and 
monocrats" like Adams and the other sponsors for the 
Alien Laws. By the party of their choice, not only in the 
city but throughout the towns and villages of the state, they 
were welcomed as efficient leaders.^ 

Such men as these became supporters of DeWitt Clinton, 
himself of Irish blood and through his life a friend of 
Ireland.^ In later years an Irish citizen of New York city 
in an address recalled that 

while a Senator of the United States you stood foremost in 
preparing and carrying into law the existing mode of naturali- 
zation . . . When many of us fled from despotism, and sought 
refuge in this emancipated land, the spirit of intolerance pur- 
sued us across the Atlantic and spared no effort to embitter 
our existence, and prolong our sorrows ; . . . you rebuked with 

»Gustavus Myers, History of Tammany Hall (N. Y., 1901), pp. 36-37. 

'Cf. M. M. Bagg, The Pioneers of Utita, pp. 137-142, 376-379, on 
John C. and Nicholas Devereux and John Devlin. 

8 In 1789 we find him reading, before a literary society, a paper called 
"A Dream of Ireland" (DeWitt Clinton, Mss. Miscellaneous Papers). 
To 1822 he wrote a series of letters which he signed " Hibemicus " 
(Letters on The Natural History and Internal Resources of the State of 
New York, N. Y., 1822). There are among his papers many addresses 
from groups of Irishmen. 



RULERS DEPOSED 



77 



effect that churlish and savage jealousy, from which professed 
repubhcans are not always exempt . . . Even here, a qualifica- 
tion oath was required from members of the Legislature, which 
could not be consistently taken by members of the Catholic 
faith! On this as on every other occasion, reason and justice 
found you their able and successful advocate. 

The recipient of this praise admitted in reply that he had 
not been " insensible to those natural predilections, which 
every man must entertain for the country of his ancestors." " 

The Irish voters became the center of lively partisan con- 
troversy. Charges passed from side to side. It was claimed 
that when the naturalization law vv'as changed, Clinton's 
friends assembled a society to school the immigrants in 
party politics to swell his following.^ On the other hand 
Clintonians accused the Federalists of cautioning their in- 
spectors at the polls to refuse the suffrage to twenty-six new 
voters unless they bought their stamped certificates — which 
would cost five dollars — and then purchasing for seques- 
tration all available stamps.'* Certainly the Irishmen proved 
no disappointment to their teachers in New York city and 
elsewhere in the state, their loyalty to Clinton was so ac- 
ceptably expressed.* 

The jealousy of strangers is nothing new in human 

' DeWitt Clinton Mss.. March i6. 1816. 

"John Wood, A Full Ex(>ositiov of the Cliiiio)imn Faction, p. jo; 
"Aristides," p. 17. 

*N. Y. AmericaH Citicen, May 1, 1802. To meet this subterfuge, the 
court records themselves were brought to the polls, see John Wood 
(loc. ctt.) : " It is needless for me to mention the ridiculous and irregu- 
lar proceeding of Wortman, in running to the poll with the books of 
the Mayor's Court under his arm. and with a troop of ragged aliens 
at his heel, when stamp certificates could not be procured." 

*The Irish and other immigrant voters turned the election from the 
Federalists to CHnton's man, for example, in Saratoga County; John 
Taylor of Charlton, Saratoga County, to John Tayler of Albany, April 
9. i&)3. Tayler Mss. 



78 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

history, and here the feehng of antipathy for those 
whose ways were diti'erent was intensihed by the glaring 
inferiorities in the standards of Hving among the new- 
comers. Not only were they different in race, religion, 
and political tradition, but uncouth, uncleanly, ignorant, 
unskilled, and frequently immoral.^ Besides all this the 
prejudice against the Catholics, that had expressed itself 
in the Lord George Gordon riots in England, was wide- 
spread in America as well.^ On Christmas, 1806, near 
St. Peter's Church in Barclay Street, mobs of nativists 
and Irishmen set upon each other with such savage force 
that much Mood was spilt, one man was stabbed to death, 
and many houses would have been sacked had not Mayor 
DeWitt Clinton arrived at the height of the tumult.^ Here 
surely was sufficient ground for animosities in politics, and 
an occasion was soon forthcoming for their expression. 

When in 1807 Rufus King was induced to head the 
Federalist ticket for the assembly in the city of New York, 
his name was scarcely printed in the party papers, when 
Thomas Addis Emmett in the columns of the Citizen began 
a virulent attack upon him, as one whom he and every other 
Irishman had just cause to hate.* It seems that in 1798 when 
King was minister of the United States in England he heard 
that the British government contemplated banishing the 
Irish state prisoners to America. He straightway protested 
on the principle that the United States should not be con- 
sidered as a Botany Bay for those whom England stamped 

'L. D. Scisco. Political Natitnsm in New York State (N. Y., igoi), 
p. 18. 

'J. G. Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States 
(N. Y., 1888), vol. ii, p. 158. 

^American Register, vol. i, p. 14, cited by L. D. Scisco. On Clinton's 
hold on the foreigners, see his Letterbook, February 13, 1808, DeWitt 
Clinton Mss. 

* N. Y. American Citisen, April 9, 1807. 



RULERS DEPOSED yg 

as undesirable.^ Emmett now charged that King was so 
confirmed a royahst that he desired no more real republicans 
admitted to America, and branded him before the state as 
the acknowledged foe of liberty. When Coleman of the 
Evenhig Post adduced a set of documents to prove that 
Emmett's conduct while in Ireland had merited severest 
punishment, the accused replied that these papers must have 
been supplied by King, and that in such a source of infor- 
mation no confidence could well be placed.- Other '* state 
prisoners " in New York expressed their hatred of the Fed- 
eralists," and the cry against their ticket was taken up by 
the Hibernian Provident Society, v/hich had recently been 
incorporated for social and charitable purposes, and whicti 
entered the campaign with a regulation that any member 
who should vote for certain candidates should be expelled, 
thus forfeiting his claims upon the common funds.* Of 
all this the Federalists expressed a deep abhorrence; James 
Kent and others talked of having Emmett disbarred,'' and 
resolutions were unanimously passed in party meetings, 
" that the prompt interference of the honorable Rufus King, 
late minister of the United States at the court of Great 
Britain, and the timely remonstrance made by him . . . 
were wise and prudent, a decisive evidence of his patriotism 
and fidelity to his public trust." " 

The challenge of the Irish received a formal answer. On 
April i8, iSo7, the Federalist Commercial Advertiser came 

* See King Correspondence, vol. ii, appendix iv, pp. 635-648, for King's 
account of this note. 

^Ibid., vol. V, p. 15 et seq. s /^^-^^ p ^^ 

* Report of the Trials of Jenkins vs. Van Rensselaer, pamphlet 
< Albany, 1808), p. 15. 

'R. Troup to R. King, April 11, 1807, King Correspondence. 
^Jenkins vs. Van Rensselaer, pp. 15-16. 



8o ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

forth with cokvmns headed with the " American Ticket." The 
name was taken up with great enthusiasm ; it announced that 
nativism was accepted as the leading issue and it was used 
as the party designation for several years.' " I observe thai 
your ticket in New York is called the American ticket," 
wrote Colonel Troup to King. " Would not this be a favor- 
able occasion for our party to assume a popular and signiii- 
cant name, free from the hobgoblins attached by many to 
Federalism? This is a subject worthy of consideration." - 
By the Republicans the name was generally scorned. " The 
present American Ticket." declared a broadside, " was once 
the i'^ederal ticket, next the Federal Republican ticket. One 
hitch more and it will be riglit — the Tory ticket — then with 
great propriety they might put a King on it." ' But the 
menace of the immigrant was not underrated by King's fol- 
lowers. " The naturalization bill in New York," wrote 
Troup again. " I fear will defeat our assembly ticket." * 
The Federalists might address the Tompkins men with their 
•■ Warning to the Gallico-Hibemico-Tom-Clintonians," '' 
but they could not win uix>n so lean an issue." James 
Cheetham. refugee from England, and the vehement Em- 

* Albany Gazette. April i8, 1808; A'. Y. Spectator. April 30, 1808; 
A', y. Commercial Advertiser, .'\pril j8, 1809. 

-Troup to King, Albany, April 11. i&)7. King Correspondence. 

*T. E. V. Smith, Political Parties and their Places of Meeting in 
.Yew York City, pamphlet (N. Y., 1893), an amplification of an address 
before the N. Y. Historical Society. 

+ Troup to King, April 24, 1807. He referred to easier mode of 
naturalization revived under Jefferson. 

■'A'. ]'. Spectator. April 29, 1807. 

"Irish immigration from about i8o<S to 1816 was much reduced be- 
cause of the dangers of travel due to the Napoleonic and .\merican 
wars; see for these years, Stephen Byrne. Irish Emigration v'N. Y.. 
187,'^), and W. J. Bromwell, History of I niiriigrafioii to the I'nited 
Stales (N. Y., 1853). p. 14. 



RULERS DEPOSED 8 1 

mett, to whom he loaned his columns, were not the only 
leaders in abuse. Citizen Genet, who as George Clinton's 
son-in-law now lived in Greenbush,' assailed King not only 
as an English sympathizer, but as downright dishonest ni 
the administration of a will," and others raked up charges 
equally absurd. " Should I congratulate or condole with 
you on the loss of your election? " wrote Charles Jared 
Ingersoll when the report of King's defeat reached Penn- 
sylvania. " I imagine if it was not the wish of others, ii 
could not be \-our own to be put up and pelted at by Irish- 
men and Frenchmen." " 

Although New York city ar.d the Federalist counties 
gave majorities to Lewis, the Clinton ticket was successful. 
All that the Federalists had to show for their strange al- 
liance was the place of William W. Van Ness in the 
supreme court,* which the Lewisites had granted beforc 
the election. The}- bore no testimony for their principles, 
they came forward with no program, they seemed in truth 
but pitiful Epigoni of the old party of the masters. Such 
was the sad condition of the Federalist party in America. 
Disheartened by defeat, and well realizing that their doc- 
trine of strong, paternal government would not again \^ 
easily accepted by the voters at the polls, they dimmed their 
lamps, that once had burned so brightly, in hope to steal in 
unobserved within the shadow of some faction more 
reputable with the scorned, but now all powerful, " average 
men " who held the gates. In Massachusetts they were 
following the same ignoble, paltering course of surreptitious 

*G. A. Worth. Random Recollections of Albany (Albany, 1865), p. 70. 

'^ This was the famous case of Staats Long Morris' widow, N. V. 
American Citizen, April 27, 1807. 

'To Rufus King, May 14, 1807, King Correspondence. 

*J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, pp. 240-247. 



82 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

coalition;^ in Pennsylvania the case was worse." Such 
procedure was but httle less destructive of what prestige 
the party had retained, than the policy of rule-or-ruin which 
the easterners had tried in 1804 and would attempt again. 

By such men as John Jay these tendencies were deplored. 
When the news reached Bedford he wrote to an old 
friend : 

As to the election, it is not clear to me what will be its precise 
effect in relation to the Federalists. If as a party they judged 
it to be expedient to favor Mr. Lewis, I think they should as a 
party have openly and decidedly declared and resolved that 
they would support him. The language of the Federal leaders 
to the party seems to amount to this, viz. ; On this occasion 
you may leave your standard ; you may go home, and every 
man is at liberty to do what may be right in his own eyes, but 
we nevertheless intimate to you, as an opinion to which we 
incline, but do not explicitly adopt, that it may be better for 
us to have Mr. Lewis than Mr. Tompkins for our Governor. 
I do not like measures of this kind. I fear that they tend to 
disorganize and sever us, and that they do not manifest that 
degree of resolution, self-respect and dignity which our 
motives, objects and situation demand. Had the party resolved 
to support Mr. Lewis, I certainly should have voted for him. 
As a mere individual, judging what was proper for me to do, 
I declined voting for either of the candidates.^ 

The disgrace of this intrigue weighed heavily upon the older 
men, but to the young disaster had a tonic value. The 

' Christopher Gore to King, December 25, 1807, King Correspondence. 
' 'The Federalists never captured the state of Pennsylvania, see W. M. 
Cornell, History of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1876), p. 469. 

*To Peter Van Schaack, May 4, 1807, lay Correspondence (Johns- 
ton's edition). This letter shows how much in error was Hammond's 
information that after his retirement. Jay never read the papers. 
Cf. PoUtual History, vol. i, p. 155. 



RULERS DEPOSED g^ 

very shame to which the party of their fathers had 
descended, stirred in them a resolution to forget those 
things that were behind, and throwing off all secret and 
despised connections win triumph, if they could — at least, 
regain their self-respect. Their problem was how to adapt 
their methods to the spirit of the times. We may turn, then, 
with no little interest, to study how they tried to draw sup- 
porters to their cause. 



CHAPTER IV 
New Methods and a Victory 

What has been called the "Democratic Revolution" 
produced small difference in the outward aspect of our in- 
stitutions, but in forwarding some tendencies and curbing 
others it registered a fundamental change in our political 
philosophy. It was not a judgment in the rivalry of 
favorite fads; the forces matched were not suddenly dis- 
covered, but had been developed in the conflict between the 
old tradition and the new environment, which makes the 
slow and painful metamorphosis we know as progress. 
Inertia in history does not have to be accounted for; it is 
an axiom in sociology no less than physics that things must 
stay till they are moved, and mankind would have given 
no surprised attention if the idea of aristocracy, that the 
few are born to rule the many, hallowed by centuries of 
custom in the "old country," had been transplanted to the 
new.^ Indeed, one reads but scantily among the records of 
the colonies who is not impressed with how much of this 
idea was carried over t(^ America. There were accepted 
barriers between gentlemen and simple-men. Ijetween those 
who wore their periwigs and silks and those who dressed in 
homespun. Such was the normal system of society; since 
under it the social peace had been preserved, it seemed 
entitled to continuance, at least so thought the comfortable 
classes. The Federalists like all conserxatives seemed jus- 
tified by time. 

But there were factors in the making of America that 

' C/. Leon Fraser, English Opinion of the American Constitution 
and Government (N. Y.. 1915). 
84 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY 85 

were lx>und to nicxlify this system. The settlers of ihis 
country- had come across the sea to found new homes where 
they might have a larger opportunity lor unhampered 
worship or well rewarded work. The essence of separatism 
and ambition is self-reliance, which, since with few excep- 
tions they came of their own will, was common to them 
all. The free land of America had made them self- 
dependent and made control imposed upon them seem 
against all natural right. For a variety of causes they had 
detennined to be free from England, justifying their bold- 
ness ujx>n the doctrine of the equal dignity of men. But the 
Declaration of Independence, as has often l>een remarked, 
was written as a campaign document ; equality was pos- 
tulated only as a basis for the claim of liberty, a philosophy 
which the conservatives were willing to endorse when in- 
tended only for the export trade. It was some twenty years 
before they were embarrassed by this memory. But phi- 
losophies insist on being universally applied. The American 
success sent out a stimulus that was received in France, 
tremendously increased and then sent back again across the 
sea. What Jefferson had written when George the Third 
brushed aside the guards of liberty, seemed suitable to quote 
when Hamilton and Fisher Ames made their great affirm- 
ations of the privileges of property. Democracy was Ix:- 
coming a national ideal. The Federalists with their business 
program failed to recognize this fact, or, if they did perceive 
it. they would not stoop to mingle with the common folk. 
scorning arts by which they might have thrived. In this 
they were more nice than wise; the last decade had made 
that clear, at least to younger members of the party. 

The old system of following policies irrespective of 
popular opinion was gone forever, wrote J. Q. Adams to 
Rufus King in 1802; ^ " it never can and never will be re- 

' J. Q. Adams to King, October 8, 1802, King Correspondence. 



86 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

vived. The experiment, such as it was, has failed, and to 
attempt its restoration would be as absurd as to undertake 
the resurrection of a carcass seven years in its grave." 
Noah Webster writing from Connecticut took the same 
position. 

There is one particular in which, I think, the leading gentle- 
men of the Washington School have uniformly erred. They 
have attempted to resist the force of current opinion, instead 
of falling into the current with a view to direct it. . . . Between 
the unbending firmness of a H n, [and] the obsequious- 
ness of a J n, there is a way to preserve the confidence 

of the populace, without a sacrifice of integrity.^ 

One reason why the peo|>le had rebuked the Federalist 
leaders was founded on the impression that they were 
leading toward a monarchy. I\'Iany of the opposition papers 
ceased to use the name Federalist in their editorials, and 
preferred to talk of the " Aristocrats," ^ whereas their own 
name Republican seemed to invoke the loyalty of all those 
who believed in the existing form of government. Some- 
thing must be done to set the people right. 

The change of rulers [declared a writer in the New York 
Spectator, in 1804] which this state and the United States 
have experienced, may be ascribed more to names and to the 
charm of words, than to any conduct or measure of the federal 
administration. It is probable that nothing has tended so 
much to alienate the affections of the people from the federal 
administration as the malicious insinuation, that the federalists 
are friends to monarchical government . . . These Machiavel- 
lian politicians by the same magic have annexed a peculiar 

*Noah Webster to King, July 6, 1807, King Correspondence. 
^ Poughkeepsie Journal in N. Y. Evening Post, November 24, 1801 ; 
-V. Y. American Citizen, May i. 1802, etc. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY §7 

property to the nanie republicanism. ... It now stands thus, 
repubhcans can do no wrong.' 

A shrewd reform was already under way, for two years 
before, certain papers had rechristened the party with a 
reassuring title; Federalists were gone, they said, and Fed- 
eral Republicans had come to take their place.- In the 
botany of politics a rose may change its perfume with its 
name. Now the Federalists took counsel as to the 
designation of their enemies. 

Jacobin [they thought, was] too offensive to obtain currency 
as a universal name, and excepting to the leaders of the party, 
unjust ; the appellation of republican is claimed in common by 
both parties, and therefore is not the least discriminative ; 
whereas democrat being the name taken by themselves and 
liable to no objection on our part, is that which alone should 
be used in writing of our political opponents.^ 

Most Federalist editors accepted this advice, though the 
change offended certain stalwarts of the old regime.* 

The Jeffersonians in New York city had earh- learned 
the use of various social aids to partisan fidelity. Societies 
were formed where mntual encouragement niigliL circulate 
with pots of ale, and plots be laid against the enemy. But 
since this enemy controlled the government, those plots were 
said to smack of treason. Washington had issued his 
warning against such secret du\ys, and Hamilton, " the 

'-Y. F. Spectator, March 31, 1804. 

^V. Y. Evening Post, April 19, 21, 180.2. =* Ihid., May 3, 1803. 

* Speaking in 1816, Judge Benson referred to " my own party, the 
Federal party, by their primitive perfect name without the subsequently 
invented addition of Republican. Is it not in the Constitution itself, 
that those who formed it were Republicans ? Suppose, yes — then ' the 
expression of it wholly inoperative.' Suppose, no — will calling them- 
selves so make them so?" Memoir, read before the Historical Society, 
etc., pamphlet (N. Y., 1817), p. 51. 



88 ARISTOCRACY JN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

servile copyist of Mr. Pitt (so wrote Thonias Jefferson) 
thought he, too, must have his alanns, his insurrection," 
and had joined his chief in condemnation.' But the Co- 
lumbian Order, or as it was more generally known, the 
Tammany Society, soon stripped of Federalist members, 
survived to menace Federalism in New York. This famous 
order had been founded, it was professed, for charitable 
and social purposes, and now that it assumed a more am- 
bitious role it by no means forgot its earlier functions; for 
under any government approaching a democracy, bounties 
to the poor an4 entertainments are well mixed with party 
politics. The Federalists in 1800 saw with confessed 
dismay the effectiveness of their opponents' methods, and 
Hamilton himself, who through the late campaign had be- 
rated Tammany and all its sons, now quietly proposed the 
flattery of imitation. Writing to James A. Bayard in 1802, 
he set forth a plan of a " Christian Constitutional Society," 
shrewdly propagandist even in its title, which should have 
its branches in all cities to promote true patriotism. The 
party must become the patron of the poor ; one proposition 
was to " institute in such places — ist, societies for the relief 
of immigrants; 2nd, academies, each with one professor, 
for instructing the different classes of mechanics in the 
principles of mechanics and the elements of chemistry. The 
cities have been employed by the Jacobins to give an impulse 
to the country." " .\pparently this well-laid scheme was 
not put into practice, but the suggestion was not lost. 

Jefferson's embargo, in 1807, so stiffened the resistance 
of the business interests that the Federalist party in New 
York, as elsewhere, shook off its lethargy of hoi>elessness 
and entered into the contest for control. No expedient 

* Jefferson to Monroe, May i, 1795 (Ford edition), vol. vii, p. 16. 
-Hamilton to Baj^ard. April \^2. Hamilton's Works (Ix)d,£re) vo4. 
viii, pp. 598-599- 




GULIAN C, VERPLANCK 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY 



89 



which had brougiir success to their (jpponents might be left 
untried. They had observed by what devices the Tammany 
Society had drawn support from classes who had no ear for 
studied argument. They had seen this organization in its 
menacing vitality spread to other cities and register new 
victories. Such methods seemed adapted to a democracy ; 
taste could not be considered, the Federalists resolved to 
adopt them before it was too late. In the spring of 1808, 
Isaac Sebring/ a prosperous merchant of the city, with the 
aid of Gulian C. Verplanck and Richard Varick. conceived 
a project by which he thought this might be accomplished. 
It the Federalists had no leader who could rival Jefferson 
in winning the great mass of men. at least they had the 
name of Washington, whose ^wtency grew with the years, 
and to turn this asset into current value, on July 12th, a 
society was formed to keep fresh his memory and carry out 
his principles. For its foundation, it is not at all unlikely, 
Mr. Sebring forwarded the money ; Colonel Varick gave the 
prestige of his patronage; and Verplanck, then but twenty- 
two years old, supplied the ardor and enthusiasm of youth. 
Whatever were the sources of its early strength, the Wash- 
ington Benevolent Society was immediately successful. 
The new society, like that of Tammany, held its meetings 
in secret and engaged to promote good fellowship among 
its members and to relieve those who were in want. It was 
particularly hospitable to old soldiers of the Revolution, but 

' Sebring was born in Dutchess County, but moved to Ncav York 
before the Revolution. He had enlisted in the army as a quarter- 
master and fought in some campaigns about the city. He had be- 
come wealthy and prominent in the Federalist party in the dty, 
sitting as alderman for the first ward (see supra, ch. i) and fre- 
quently as chairman of public party meetings (e. g. N. Y. Commercial 
Advertiser, February 27, 1809). He later lost his fortune and wa^ 
glad to be appointed to a clerkship in the Custom House under Samuel 
Swartwout; W. Barrett, Old Merchants of New York, vol. iv, pp. 
18-20; J. A. Roberts, New York in the Revolution (N. Y. 1898), p. 135. 



90 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



through its charm of mystery and picturesqueiiess it ap- 
pealed to men of high and low degree: no workman was 
too humble to be welcomed to its ranks to march for Fed- 
eralist principles. Its pose was of impartial patriotism — a 
harmless affectation, since no one was deceived. 

The society held its first public celebration on February 
22nd, 1809. marching to the Zion Church to hear a discourse 
by Samuel M. Hopkins; and such support had been ac- 
corded to the enterprise that, in the evening of that day. 
more than a thousand sat dov;n to supper in five taverns, 
the president and his honorary staff appearing several times 
at each, that no one might feel slighted.^ The plan was soon 
adopted in other cities and villages of the state. Every- 
where appeared the little manual called Washington's 
Legacy, which contained his j>ortrait, his Farewell Address 
(not leaving out his solemn warning against secret political 
clubs!), and sometimes a "Chronological Sketch of the Life 
of the Author of the Foregoing Address." - Often, too, 
the constitutions of the nation and the state were printed,"" 
and a blank certificate of membership to be filled in by the 
local officers. The statement of the constitution of the 
society is not uniform, but that of the town of Galway, in 
Saratoga County, may serve as an example.* Besides 
commemorating Washington, " It is to promote harmony 
and unity of sentiment among the members ; to endeavor to 
collect and diffuse correct information on matters respecting 

* A'. Y. Commercial Advertiser, February 2^, 1809. 

' See edition for Essex County (N. J.) Washington Benevolent 
Society, 1812 (N. Y. P. L.) 

3 For example, edition for Augusta, N. Y. (Albany, t8i6). Some- 
tinges the society served a town, sometimes a county, and sometimes 
both together. See Private Journal of DeWitt Clinton, p. 86, in W. W. 
Campbell, Life and IVritittgs of DeWitt Clinton (N. Y., 1849). 

* Constitution of the Washington Benevolent Society of Galway, in 
the County of Saratoga (Albany, 181 2). 



NEH^ METHODS AND A VICTORY gi 

our state and national affairs, as a means of inculcating 
sound political principles . . . and a constant watchfulness 
against the intrigues of men to whatever political part)- 
they belong." An indirect attack was made on Jeffersonians 
when it required that. "No person that is an atheist, a deist, 
a profane swearer, a drunkard, or doth not respect the 
Christian Sabbath, shall be received as a member of this 
society." Benevolences from the common chest were to be 
granted to poor members, but to guard against abuse it was 
provided that not more than two dollars a month should 
I>e given to an applicant without a general vote. Largely 
for this purpose each member paid a dollar as initiation fee 
and fifty cents a year as dues. 

The society spread far beyond the boundaries of the 
state. ^ It followed Tammany to Rhode Island," and was 
taken up in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
and especially Vermont, while Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey each had their local organizations, that in Phila- 
delphia enduring until after 1820.^ It had " runners " who 
spent their time in organizing branches, and developing such 
fraternity and loyalty among the members that Republican 
conventions roundly condemned the society as dangerous to 

*C/. Harlan H. Ballard, "A Forgotten Fraternity" in Collectimts 
of the Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society, vol. iii, no. 4 (1913), 
pp. 279-298; and E. F. Hanaburgh, "News for Bibliophiles" in The 
Nation, October 30, 1913. 

^W. A. Robinson, Jeifersonian Democracy in New England (New 
Haven, 1916), p. 89, citing M. W. Jemegan. The Tammany Societies 
of Rhode Island. 

3 T. E. V. Smith, Political Parties, etc. The New York Public Library 
has the best collection of " Washington's Legacies " orations, poems, etc. 
known to the author; other collections are to be found in the N. Y. 
Historical Society Library, the Boston Athenaeum (see Catalogue, part 
V, p. 3264) and the American Antiquarian Society Library. In the 
last named is a satire called The First Book of the Washington Bene- 
volents, etc. Many items are scattered among town libraries. 



go ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

the nation, because of secrecy and friendship for Great 
Britain/ 

It was the element of secrecy that most perturbed the 
Madisonians ; no guess was too extravagant as to what took 
place behind locked doors and curtained windows. In New 
England after 1812, when recruiting ofiftcers were baffled 
by mysterious counsel to the young, the Republicans cried 
out in wrath against the " Washington Benevolents." De- 
sertions and escapes were charged to their cabals; and when 
some candidate for Congress or the legislature whose out- 
look had been hopeful was overwhelmingly defeated by a 
b^deralist at the polls, outraged partisans of Madison 
averred that the records of this i>estilent society, if they 
were once forthcoming, would lay bare a scandalous con- 
spiracy. Fantastic fabrications were made to pass as the 
awful oaths required of its members, and committees were 
appointed to watch closely for some overt act on which to 
base a charge of treason. The Federalists, of course, 
exulted at the furor their society created, each new outcry 
proving its effectiveness.* 

Yet their secrets were innocent enough. Several years 
ago, by accident, there was discovered in Berkshire County, 
Massachusetts, an ancient volume of ledger-like appearance, 
which, after jxisted clippings had been steamed away, dis- 
closed in fair round writing the ritual of the Washington 
Benevolent Society.^ There was provided for their monthly 
meetings a punctilious ceremonial requiring ten officers, and, 
to insure a uniformity in the conduct of their business, 
regular reports were forwarded to the parent society in 
New York. The neophyte was solemnly assured that 

' Vermont Republican, January 12. 1810 and February 10. 1812, quoted 
by Robinson, loc. cit. 
'H. H. Ballard, loc. at., pp. 279, 390. 
'■^Ibid.. pp. 285-287; this discovery was made by Mr. Ballard. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY 



93 



during the administration of Thomas Jefferson " our right 
has been impaired, our constitution disregarded, and dis- 
sensions and distress have prevailed among our citizens." 
As he was examined for the last induction, he was asked 
as to his countr}^ "'Are you willing to use your exertion to 
preserve it against the inroads of despotism, monarchy, 
aristocracy, and democracy? " ^ 

It was customary for the society on Washington's Birth- 
day and the Fourth of July to listen to patriotic orator}', 
more or less frankly Federalist in Ravor ; the great departed 
chieftain was commemorated as summing up the civic 
virtues. He it was, said Samuel AI. Hopkins, making the 
first of these addresses in Februar}\ 1809, — he it was, who 
prevented us from rushing into the abyss of French fra- 
ternity. What had been the fate of most republics in the 
world? "Where w^ere Switzerland. Genoa. Venice and 
Holland ? Where had been America but for Washing- 
ton?"^ One year later, Peter A. Ta3^ speaking when 
America had felt the pinch of Napoleon's Continental 
System, thought it timely to berate the French and the ideas 
of revolution so dear to Jeffersonians. 

Washington [he said] was not to be fascinated by the syren 
song of equality . . . and uninfected with the absurd and perni- 
cious sophisms of these modern days, he never apostasized 

' It is likely that in devising this ritual, the authors had taken sonte 
suggestion from the Society of the Cincinnati, then entirely Federalist 
in sympathy (see toasts as given in A'. Y. Evening Post, August 14. 
i8ii) and of whose New York chapter, Col. Varick was the president 
when he co-operated in the foundation of the Washington Benevolent 
Society; see John Schuyler, The Society of the Cincinnati in New 
York (N, Y. 1886), p. 333. There was usually an oration at the monthly 
meeting, see Abimelech Coody (G. C. Verplanck) Letter to Dr. Samuel 
L. Mifchill, M. D.. etc. (N. Y., 1811), p. 11. 

' S. M. Hopkins, .4n Oration delivered before the W^'ashington Bene- 
volent Society, in the City of Nezv York, at Zion Church, on the Tzventy- 
secand of February, 1809 (N. Y., 1809), in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections. 



94 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



[sic] from the belief of his fathers and thought it was no 
matter of importance either to individuals or to the public, 
whether there were one God or twenty." 

But many orators were not content with these indirect 
attacks. Gulian C. Verplanck, the society's young secretary, 
had the previous July delivered an oration wherein he hist 
recalled the prosperous days of Federalism. But at length 
the wisdom of the nation slept; 

so completely were the people drugged with the opiates of 
flattery and fair profession, that they lay in stupid lethargy, 
and saw their navy dismantled and their commerce left to the 
mercy of every petty pirate. They saw without indignation, 
the temples of justice broke open and the judiciary, the fore- 
most bulwark of our liberties, thrown down and trampled 
under foot. Unmoved, they beheld a system of executive cor- 
cuption and unconstitutional influence sprouting forth from 
the head of the administration, spreading through every depart- 
ment of the state, and enveloping the representative majesty 
of our nation in its broad and poisonous shade. 

Madison, now come co power, if not himself desti-uctive, 
was the patron of the admirers of French licentiousness.^ 
Josiah Quincy, who somewhat later addressed the Boston 
branch, inquired of " Our rulers — who are they, and what is 
true of them? Mr. Madison is President; Mr. Monroe, 
Secretary of State; Mr. Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury; 
Mr. Armstrong, Secretary of War. Every man of them 

' P. A. Jay, An Oration delivered before the Washington Benevolent 
Society in the City of New York (N. Y., 1810), in N. Y. Pub. Library. 

^ G. C. Verplanck, An Oration delivered July 4th, 1809, in the North 
Dutch Church, before the Washington Benevolent Society (N. Y., 
1809), in Columbia University Library; a somewhat inaccurate quota- 
tion is to be found in C. P. Daly, Biographical Sketch in Proceedings 
of the Century Association in Honor of the Memory of Gulian C. 
Verplanck (N. Y.. 1870). 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY 



95 



in V/ashington's day the enemy of his policy." ' Such was 
the style of oratory addressed to this society in its various 
branches throughout its dozen years of life; most famous 
Federalists were glad to speak before it, from Gouvenieur 
Morris, who gave the counsel of the passing generation, to 
Daniel Webster, who vouchsafed the promise of the new.' 

The Tammany Society had a home in Martling's Tavern, 
which the Federalists were wont to call contemptuously 
'' the Pigpen." Sebring and his colleagues in the enterprise 
boldly set about to shame their rivals by building a great 
hall, to be maintained exclusively for party purposes. At 
the evening meeting, February 22, 1809, it was decided to 
sell 8000 shares of stock at ten dollars each. During the 
spring a plot was purchased on the corner of Reade Street 
and Broadway, and on the Fourth of July, the society pro- 
ceeded, with much pomp and pride, to lay the corner stone 
of Washington Hall, probably the first edifice in America 
so built for party purposes.^' The stone was set in place by 
the president, Isaac Sebring, with all formality. " Built by 
the friends of Washington," he said, " may it never be 
polluted by the enemies of that illustrious and revered 
statesman." * This solemn cermony then completed, the 

1 Quincy's speech is reprinted in full in the New York Spectator, 
May 12-15, 1813. 

*G. Morris, An Oration delivered July 5th, 1813 before the Wash- 
ington Benevolent Society in the City of New York (N. Y., 1813), 
in N. Y. P, L. ; see also in same library addresses by Noah Webster, 
Isaac C. Bates, etc. and by Sedgwick in N. Y. Evening Post, July 5, 
181 1 ; The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster (Boston, 1903), 
vol. XV, p. 583. In the New York Society Library there is An Oration 
delivered at Washington Hall, February 22, 1814 before the Washing- 
ton Benevolent Society of the City of New York, in commemoration 
of the nativity of George Washington, by H. W. Warner. Cf. Ode 
read with this, A'. Y. Commercial Advertiser, February 23, 1814. 

^ Tammany Hall was not begun until the following year. 

*A". F. Commercial Advertiser, July S, 1809. The inscription was 



q6 ARISTOCRACY I.\' THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

company marched to the North Dutch Church where an ode- 
was sung, and the oration we have mentioned was pro- 
nounced by Gulian C. Verplanck. 

The imposing building with high pediment and decorated 
cornice was hailed as a monument to Federalist enterprise ; 
but although some well-to-do members like Philip Hone, 
bought twenty-five shares or more,^ only about half the 
necessary funds to pay for its erection were subscril>ed. 
Sebring was obliged to borrow heavily, and. in 1817, the 
hall was sold as a hotel, though still considered as the 
headquarters of the party, and the stopping place for most 
New England Federalists passing to and from the nation's 
capital.- But what was done by the *' Benevolents " in New 
York city was orthodox for all the chapters, and soon other 
Washington Halls were built as temples for the faithful. 
Such were those in Albany and Troy, in Stockbridge, 
Massachusetts,^^ and the more commodious structure put up 
in Third Street, Philadelphia.* 

The pageantry of the society was likewise .soon re<luced 

as follows: " This Corner Stone of Washington Hall was laid July 4th, 
1809, being the 33rci Anniversary of the Independence of the United 
States of America by the Washington Benevolent Society. Instituted 
i2th July, A. D. MDCCCVIII." 

' Diary of Philip Hone (edited by Bayard Tuckennan. N. Y., 1889), 
vol. ii, p. 347- 

*The last public celebration of the society in New York City was 
held in 1817, although meetings are spokei> of as late as 1820, T. E. V. 
Smith, op. cit.. p. w ef seq. The hotel was renovated in 1827 and burned 
in 1844. See also W. Barrett, Old Merchants of Nezv York, vol. iv. 
pp. 18-IQ. 

•■' H. H. Ballard, op. cit., pp. 282, 290 ; Mrs. C. V. R. Bonney, Legacy 
of Historical Cleanings, vol. i, p. 281. Even the negroes had their 
"Washington Benevolent Association of Africa." see .4nalcctic Maga- 
zine, vol. xiii (1819), p. 279. 

♦B. J. Lossing. Cyclopedia of I'rtiled States History ( N. Y.. t88i), 
vol. ii. p. 1478. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY 



97 



to code, following the New York precedent. The members 
always marched in thirteen grand divisions, each preceded 
by a banner with the name and, possibly, the " counterfeii 
presentment " of a hero of the Revolution, the choice not 
left to chance but specified in order — Hancock, McDougall, 
Putnam, on to Hamilton, the last. The chief standard of 
the line was always that of Washington, richly fringed and 
mounted, and generally escorted by the war-worn veterans of 
the Revolution.' The cultus of the Father of His Country 
had in one short decade reached to such development that 
" relics," like his gorget, were sometimes carried in the 
honorable place of the procession." It was customary for an 
ofBcer, perhaps the first vice-president, to carry in his hand 
the sacrosanct Farewell Address, while others bore the 
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. There 
were other flags and pennants commemorating each some 
glorious event, such as the Christmas victory at Trenton 
or the surrender of Burgoyne. until with bands and banners, 
mounted men and carriages, and the thousands four abreast, 
the eye was surfeited with splendor. The ceremonies of 
Rogation Week in mediaeval Rome could scarcely have 
been more nicely ordered. It was the public ritual of nation- 
alism — performed, ironically enough, by the party of the 
Hartford Convention." 

In a letter to his father, Peter -V. Jay describes the cere- 
monies in which he bore a part : 

The Celebration of yesterda} occasioned much exultation 

^N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, ]u\y 3, 5, 7, 1809. July 3. 181T. July 

3, 1813 ; H. H. Ballard, loc. cit. 

'Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, 1876-1877, pp. 401-404. 

' The credit for this success should doubtless go to G>1. Richard 

Piatt who was the marshal of the society's model celebration on July 

4, 1809. It was he who had managed the great " Federal parade " of 
1789. iV. Y. Comjnercial Advertiser, July 5. 1809 and W. A. Duer, 
Reminiscences of an Old New Yorker. 



g8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

among the Federalists. The Society walked in procession and 
amounted to more than two thousand. Many Gentlemen kept 
aloof, but it was one of the most respectable assemblages of 
people that I have ever seen. It consisted of substantial 
Shop keepers and Mechanicks, of Men of the middling Class, 
and of a considerable Number of old Revolutionary officers 
and Soldiers. Almost all of them possess Influence and can 
bring to the poll other votes besides their own.^ 

All this meeting and marching and dining was not with- 
out effect in New York city. The recovery of the majority 
in the common council, which had been lost in 1804, was 
attributed to the efforts of the society, and it was natural 
that they should conduct an elaborate illumination.^ The 
" Washington Benevolents " and their friends of the Ham- 
ilton Society, w^hich met in Hamilton Hall in Cherry Street,^ 
let no occasion pass without a parade and a feast with -ts 
innumerable toasts.* When in 1834 William Sullivan was 
writing an account of the celebrations of the various 
branches in 1812, he remarked, " If ever the day shall come 
when like perils shall overtake the good citizens of the 
United States, let them remember this example." ^ In this 
connection, then, it is apposite to note the observation of a 
pamphleteer in 1840, that the Tippecanoe Clubs of that 

* P. A. Jay to John Jay, February 23, 1810, Jay Correspondence. 

^ I. N. Phelps-Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, (N. Y., 
1915), vol. i, p. 406, and T. E. V. Smith, lac. cit. 

•W. Y. Evening Post, July 3, 181 1; W. H. Bayless, Old Taverns of 
New York (N. Y., 1915), pp. 408. 423. 

* Members of Congress were always specially invited. It is interest- 
ing in 181 1 in New York to find a mechanic toasting the merchants, 
and a merchant the mechanics. The sentiments grew bolder at these 
banquets as the night wore on. For the order of march of the Hamil- 
ton Society, see N. Y. Spectator, July 6, 181 1. 

^ William Sullivan, Familiar Letters on Public Characters and Public 
Events, from the Peace of 1783 to the Peace of 18 15 (Boston, 1834), 
p. .34B. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY 99 

year, with all their extravagances, were but lineal descend- 
ants of the Washington Benevolent Society/ 

Such were the new devices by which Young Federalism 
sought to make its fellowship attractive. For a season they 
enjoyed success," but this was due, in large part, to a 
measure of the national government, inevitably so un- 
popular as to give the opposition a cause of dignity, and, 
therefore, once again respectful hearing. Shortly before 
Christmas in 1807, a docile Congress passed the President's 
embargo bill, and by thus " regulating " commerce made 
the first of that long series of convincing demonstrations 
that the Jeffersonian party could not serve and could not 
understand the economic interests of the north. In New 
York, as in New England, the Federalist merchants and 
their friends recognized it as a stroke so patently impolitic 
that, in the reaction, which was sure to follow hard upon 
its execution, they took hope of permanent relief. They 
could suffer, almost with enthusiasm, if their plight might 
break the patience of the public. Although in the winter 
and spring of 1808 the suffering was yet chiefly in antici- 
pation, all realized that here was an issue on which the party 
might appeal no less to patriotism than to self-interest. 
Essays on the gloomy prospect now filled the columns of 
the Federalist prints,^ sharing space with resolutions and 

^ C. G. Greene and B. F. Hallett, The Identity of the Old Hartford 
Convention Federalists with the Modern Whig-Harrison Party Care- 
fully illustrated by Living Specimens, and Dedicated to the Young Men 
of the Nation (Boston Morning Post, extra, August, 1840, in Cornell 
University Library). 

* It had scores of branches and tens of thousands of members. Its 
decay began with the declaration of peace in 1815. William Cobbett, 
in his Weekly Register, May 13, 1815, said that this society in the 
Federalist states was like the British Literary Fund, " a scheme for 
attaching hack writers to the government under the guise of charity." 
See S. E. Morison, Harrison Gray Otis (Boston, 1913), vol. i, p. 30i- 

^A good example is the series of letters by Rufus King appearing 
in the Evening Post, see King to T. Pickering, February 5, 1808, King 
Correspondence. 



lOO ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

[xititions; and this was by no means confined to New York 
city. What were " the arni)^ and navy of John i\dams — 
the eight per cent loan — stamp act, direct tax, carriage, loaf 
sugar, and whiskey tax, all the old so-called abominations," 
to this new monstrosity.^ Campaign songs appeared which 
recalled the glorious days a decade since. 

" When federal men did stand at helm. 
We shipped off many a cargo — 
When Wheat and all produce was high, 
'Cause there was no embargo, — " 

the good old days of Tom Truxton and Toby Lear, when 
America had struck the enemy and not herself." 

The New England Federalists saw here an opportunity to 
discredit the President and his " official candidate," James 
Madison, whose election had been ordered for the autumn. 
The Essex Jmito of Massachusetts called a convention to 
discuss the nomination for the impending contest. The 
"' delegates " were self -selected or chosen by small groups of 
gentlemen in council. In the party methods here Otis and 
his colleagues did not contemplate a reference to the people ; 
it was, as usual, a movement for the people, by the wise and 
good. To bring about the meeting, which was scheduled 
for New York. Judge Egbert Benson suggested committees 
of correspondence, which were formed for states and 
counties, and engaged in some preliminary discussion. 
Otis thought the Clintons, feeling slighted in the preference 
for Madison over George Clinton, then Vice-President, 
might be supported by the Federalists. But the committees 
of New York would not endorse a coalition. " We have 
condescended twice," wrote Abraham Van Vechten, " to 
tamper with Democratic candidates, and in both instances 

^Albany Gazette, March 17. 1808. 
''Ibid, February 29, 1808. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY loi 

have been subjected to severe self-reproach . . . Our ex- 
perimental knowledge of the Clintonian system is a powerful 
antidote against affording it any facihty here." When 
the Federalists met, from the south as well as north, C. C. 
Pinckney was selected as the candidate for President and 
Rufus King for the second office. The New York com- 
mittee sent out announcements to their correspondents in 
the different states.^ 

Jefferson's subservience to France was held up to indig- 
nation, while England holding out against Napoleon was 
pictured as the champion of liberty. Even her impressment 
of the sailors on our ships, which, since the encoimter of the 
" Leopard " and the " Chesapeake " had occasioned bitter 
protest, was now easily excused. 

If England abandon the right, the British sailors would desert. 
. . , They would engage in our service for less wages than their 
own (for engage they must, there being no other way for them 
to gain a livelihood). Our native American sailors, of course, 
would be thrown out of employ. Which ought we to en- 
courage, foreign sailors or our own? ... In case of war no 
reliance could be placed on foreign sailors." 

There was widely published through the state a speech of 
Barent Gardenier, a congressman from Ulster County, who 
complained of Jefferson's diplomacy as wrapped in secrecy, 
and for the boldness of his charges was challenged to a 
duel.^ The Federalists of New York city announced a 

'Van Vechten to Otis, S. E. Morison, Otis, vol. i, p. 3^7', Jacob 
Radclifife, J. O. Hoffman, C. D. Colden and S. Jones, Jr. (the N. Y. 
committee) to the Federal Republican Committee of Charleston, S. C, 
ibid., pp. 314-315; also ibid., p. 304. In spite of the mode of designating 
delegates, this may be called the first national nominating convention. 

- See " Peace " in jV. Y. Spectator, April 13, 1808. 

* iV. Y. Evening Post and Albany Gazette March 3, 180S. In this duel 
with G. W. Campbell, Gardenier was severely wounded, see Albany 
Gazette, March 14, 1808; H. von Hoist, The Constitutional and Political 
History of the United States (Chicago. 1876), vol. i, pp. 210-211. 



102 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

motto which might have been developed into the first party 
platform in America : " No Embargo — No Foreign In- 
fluences — No Mystery — Freedom of Debate — Freedom of 
Suffrage — Freedom of Navigation and Trade — Liberty and 
Independence." ^ The Republicans realized that now they 
had a foe no longer to be scorned." When the vote was taken 
the Federalists had not only their old districts by the upper 
Hudson and the Mohawk, but a number of new counties, 
though not including New York city." The ardent efforts 
of Williams, Van Ness, and J. R. Van Rensselaer gave the 
party a larger majority in Columbia County than it had 
ever known before.* The party delegation sent to Congress, 
including James Emott, Barent Gardenier, K. K. Van 
Rensselaer, Herman Knickerbocker and Robert LeRoy 
Livingston, was a credit to the state. ^ 

Each new law conceived to stiffen and complete the em- 
bargo, threw more numbers and more strength into the 
Federalist opposition. In New York the conditions soon 
grew intolerable. The port was full of shipping, but the 
masts stood gaunt and bare of sails through the spring 
and summer. The wharves and quays were clean of 
boxes, bales or casks; counting-houses which had been 
scenes of bustle and activity were now deserted, many 
vainly advertised for rent. Of all the carts that had 
rattled through the streets, scarcely one in ten was 
now offered for employment; while idle clerks com- 

* N. Y. Evening Post, quoted in Albany Gazette, April 25, 1808. 

*See DeWitt Clinton to George Clinton. April 3, 1808, DeWitt 
Clinton Mss. 

^Albany Gazette, May 1-5, 1808. 

* Martin Van Buren to DeWitt Clinton, April 16 and April 30, 1808, 
DeWitt Clinton Mss.; W. W. Van Ness to Sol. Van Rensselaer, April 
30, 1808, vol. i, p. 484. 

'^Albany Gazette, May 5, 1808. 



NEIV METHODS AND A VICTORY 103 

miserated seamen, and merchants gathered in the Tontine 
Coffee House to frame petitions/ 

The effects were by no means limited to New York city. 
At Albany, when no canvas was unfurled upon the river at 
the melting of the ice in 1808, the carters and the bargemen 
joined the sailors in their complaint." The farmers about 
Utica, led by Thomas R. Gold and Jonas Piatt, protested 
that the value of their land depended on the free way for 
their surplus produce to the European markets. Without 
this they could not make their payments to land agents. 
With respect to the Mohawk Valley, they said in a petition 
to the President, where the foreign sale of potash and flour 
was the chief source of their ready money, this measure in 
its rigid execution would "arrest the further progress of 
those settlements, blast the experiments of the husbandmen, 
and ruin the flourishing frontier counties of the state." ' 
Although the Oneida Federalists three years later gladly 
put their money into manufacturing, in 1809 they professed 
to fear its drawing off of labor from its customary pursuits.* 
The same complaint came from the districts further west. 
When wheat dropped from two dollars to seventy-five cents 
the bushel, Colonel Troup, in Geneva, as agent for the 
Pulteneys found difficulty in collecting rents." 

^John Lambert, Travels through Canada and the United States 
of North America in the Years 1806, 1807, 1808 (London, 1814), vol. 
»> P- 55 et seq. 

^Albany Gazette, March 17, 1808, 

3 N. Y. Spectator, September 13, 1808. ^ M. M. Bagg, op. cit. 

^ Troup to King, Albany, March 7. 1808, King Correspondence; J. D. 
Hammond, Political History, vol. i, p. 265. For a time it seemed 
likely that DeWitt Clinton might make common cause with the 
Federalists on the embargo. Since the beginning of Mr. Jefferson's 
second term, Clinton had been chafing at the natural preference of 
Virginia for Madison rather than his uncle, the Vice-President, as 
party leader. He at first opposed the embargo, and letters came to 



I04 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



Although some Federalists, like Gouverneur Morris, 
were still pessimistic/ most of the leaders, howsoever they 
might suffer in their private purses, saw here the flood tide 
of fortune for the party. They affected to consider any 
laborers who were employed by Republicans as doubtless 
bullied into voting for embargo policies. It was the sense 
of a meeting held in New York city 

that all electors who shall be deprived of employment, or 
otherwise persecuted, in consequence of the free exercise of 
the right of suffrage, are entitled to the protection of the 
Federal Republicans of this city, and we hereby pledge our- 
selves to these and the public, that to the utmost of our power 
we will countenance, encourage, and protect all citizens who 
may thus be persecuted.^ 

It was in the spirit of the new attempt to make the party 
popular with the lower classes, that some enthusiasts were 
anxious to silence for all time the irritating cry of Toryism. 
To understand this imputation it is necessary to revert to an 
earlier campaign. 

The contest of 1807 had been enlivened by an episode, 
which recounted may suggest a commentary on the ways 
of politics a hundred years ago. On April 2, 1807, the 
Albany Register, a Clinton paper, produced an affidavit 
which read as follows: 

Col. Nicholas Staats of the County of Rensselaer, being duly 
sworn deposeth — that he the said Nicholas was a member of 

him which hinted at FederaUst support for the venerable George 
Clinton (see his Mss., September 16, 1808), but he subsequently changed 
his mind on the commercial policy though he was never reconciled to 
the Virginia dynasty. 

* He spoke of doubts as to " whether to make an effort to put good 
men in power or remain quiet spectators. I am of the latter opinion." 
Diary and Letters, vol. ii. p. 512. 

'.v. Y. Eveniyig Post, April 25. 1809. 



NEIV METHODS AND A VICTORY 105 

the House of Assembly for the County of Rensselaer in the 
session of 180G — that in the month of January of the same 
year, and on the day before the Assembly proceeded to the 
choice of the Council of Appointment, he the deponent was 
waited upon by Solomon Van Rensselaer, adjutant general of 
the State — that said Van Rensselaer intimated to him, the 
said Nicholas Staats, that the Governor was his (the said 
Nicholas') friend; that he, the Governor, had appointed the 
sheriff of Greene County to gratify him : — That the said Van 
Rensselaer requested the deponent to call at Mr. Skinner's 
Coffee-House and see Mr. Van Ness and Mr. Shurtleff, two 
federal members of the house, who, the said Van Rensselaer 
assured him wished to converse with him, as this deponent 
understood, upon the subject of choosing the Council of Ap- 
pointment . . . That the said Van Rensselaer further pressed 
the subject of the Council, and intimated uneijui vocally to the 
said Nicholas, that if he would vote for the ticket which was 
to be supported by the Governor's friends, mentioning the 
name of Mr. Woodworth in particular, as one who would be 
on the said ticket, that in that case he. the said Nicholas, would 
be promoted to or made a Brigadier General. . . . ^ 

Solomon Van Rensselaer, who was a cousin of the 
Patroon, apparently aware what useful service could be 
rendered by a good red herring, declared some four days 
later that this affidavit had been extracted under pressure 
by Citizen Genet, a man who should be given small consid- 
eration, inasmuch as he had recently been threatening the 
United States with an attack by General Bonaparte." Genet 
denied this charge,^ whereupon a Federalist general meeting. 

1 Shurtleff was a member of assembly from Albany County, N. Y. 
Assembly Journal, 1807, p. 3. The proceedings of the trials later coo- 
ducted in Albany may be found in a pamphlet Report of the Triab of 
Jenkins vs. Van Rensselaer (Albany, 1808, N. Y. State Library), 
See also Albany Gazette, March 14, 1808. 

^ Supplement to the Albany Republican Crisis, April 6, 1807. 

^Albany Register, April 13, 1807. 



I06 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

at the capital, expressed its full confidence in Van 
Rensselaer's word. The Republicans, not so to be dis- 
credited, likewise gathered to declare, on motion of Judge 
Tayler, that they wholly disbelieved that the ex-minister 
had made the threat.^ Van Rensselaer, as might have been 
expected, took this as a passing of the lie. The chairman 
of the meeting, Judge John Tayler, being too decrepit to 
be dealt with, he sent the secretary, Elisha Jenkins, a chal- 
lenge to a duel, to which, to his chagrin, no response was 
made. Soon seeing Jenkins on the public street, he stole 
up behind, struck him to the ground insensible, and then 
walked on without concern. On passing toward the State 
House square, some angry words were exchanged with old 
Judge Tayler, who, with the more efficient help of Dr. C. 
D. Cooper, his son-in-law, and another, set upon Van 
Rensselaer to such purpose that he was all but killed, and 
kept in bed for half a year. It was charged that Governor 
Lewis standing by allowed Van Rensselaer to use his cane." 
It was long before the echoes of this brawl had died 
away. As in 1804 when Burr's following had been called 
" the sons of sworn king's men," ^ so now again was raised 
the stale reproach of Toryism. 

Republicans, [admonishes a curious old handbill] see the Reign 
of Terror revived with all its violence and horror — see young 
tories attacking old Whigs — because they are Republicans! 
Judge Tayler, whose head is white with the hoar of years, 
fought the battles of our independence, and has ever since been 
a firm and undaunted whig. But what shall we say of Morgan 
Lewis, the Governor of the State? Behold him, encouraging 
tumult and violence ! Behold him lend his cane to an up- 

^ Jenkins vs. Van Rensselaer, pp. 13-17. 

^ Ibid. At the trials the most eminent counsel in the state appeared. 
Verdicts were awarded to both sides. 
» Benj. Howe to John Tayler, September 17, 1804, Tayler Mss. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY 



107 



Start Tory; behold him assisting that tory to do violence to 
Judge Tayler, a revolutionary soldier — a Senator in this State 
— an old man and an inflexible Republican. Is such a man fit 
to be the Governor of a free people ! Republicans ! rise in 
your might, and put down this infamous composition of Tory- 
ism and Apostacy.^ 

This was a generation which was sensitive to such ap- 
peals. Men then in middle life remembered Tories as the 
terror of their childhood. Grizzled " skinners," in recounting 
sufferings and adventures, still kept bright the fires of 
hatred in what had been the neutral ground. Citizens of 
New York city could with bitterness recall their seven 
years of banishment while Loyalists enjoyed their property 
within the lines. Cherry Valley and Oriskany were names 
still hideous with the memory of murder. Broadsides 
written by Republicans in 1807 which called to mind the 
horrors of the scalping knife and prison ship did not fail of 
their effect; it would never do to let the Tory-Federalists 
regain control. 

In 1809, when the Federalists were again the objects of 
this old hue and cry, some daring spirits urged the cleansing 
of their party of this stain by the ostracism of all those to 
whom the charge of Toryism might be applied. But such 
proposals stirred the indignation of the older leaders. 
Colonel Troup in Albany, writing to Rufus King, made no 
secret of his heat." 

On the subject of unanimity [he wrote] permit me to 
remark, that we are alarmed with late reports from New York. 
We are told that our friends are divided into two parties who 
have become, or are likely to become, open enemies to each 
other; the one contending that persons liable to the charge of 
toryism, from having resided within the British lines, or from 

^ Quoted in T. E. V. Smith, Political Parties, etc., p. 9. 
* Albany, April 4, 1809, King Correspondence. 



Io8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

being descended from those who did so reside, ought to be 
excluded from the ticket about to be formed; and the other 
contending that the exclusion of such persons would be illiberal, 
unjust and impolitic. If these reports be well founded it 
would be highly gratifying to your friends here, if you would 
be kind enough to employ your weight and influence, and 
endeavor to heal the division and restore harmony . . . The 
advocates of exclusion, besides incurring the imputation of il- 
liberality and injustice, stand opposed by a long and uninter- 
rupted course of practice. Soon after we regained possession 
of New York, we permitted the Tories to enlist under our 
banners ; and they have since manfully fought by our side in 
every important battle we have had with the democracy ; some 
of them in the character of officers, and others in those of 
common soldiers. And when monies have been necessary to 
support our cause, many amongst them never scrupled to pay 
their quota of the general tax. Moreover we ought not to 
forget their zealous and useful service in our great contest 
for the constitution ; which I presume was intended to have 
the effect of putting us on an equal footing with regard to the 
rights and honors of citizenship. Why therefore should these 
our good friends be now branded with the odium of " British 
sensibility " and drummed out of our ranks? My soul revolts 
at the very idea of a measure so illiberal — so unjust — and in- 
deed so excessively cruel ! . . . We often had on our tickets 
men denominated tories. In this list, I name our worthy 
friends Mr. Harison, Mr. Cornelius I. Bogert and Mr. Josiah 
O. Hoffman and to their names we may add those of Mr. John 
Watts, Mr. John De Lancy and Mr. William Cock with 
several others. What would the generous heart of our ever to 
be lamented friend Hamilton induce him to say of this exclud- 
ing project, if he were capable of participating with us in our 
present patriotic and noble struggle? But the mere mention 
of his name calls to my mind and fills my breast with emotion, 
which prevents my enlarging & compels me to conclude with 
assuring you of the pure and exalted esteem, with which I am, 
My dear sir, 

Your humble Servant, 

RoBT. Troup. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY jqq 

It is probable that King's good sense responded to his 
friend's suggestions; at least there was no further talk of 
reading out all those who had been Loyalists. 

In, the following cainpaign the Republicans revived the 
charge which proved so useful. In an address issued from 
a meeting held in Albany, they accounted for the wealth of 
Federalists on the ground that as Tories in the Revolution, 
they had saved their property unimpaired while the Whigs 
impoverished themselves in patriotic sacrifice. 

And as property is too universally the basis of influence [they 
said] these Tories soon took the lead in our affairs; their 
brethren who had been expelled from our shores returned to 
take advantage of our maganimous clemency, and to strengthen 
the party against liberty. Some distinguished apostates from 
the Whig ranks went over to this party — and by this artful 
combination the people were deluded . . . These gentlemen 
were for a government of energ}- . . . and as the tory principle 
is tliat of arbitrary' power, it was natural for the friends of 
that principle to side with ranks of the latter gentlemen.' 

The election in 1809 in New York ga.\x the Federalists 
their first victory for a decade.- Five senators out of eight, 
representing the eastern and western districts, were re- 
turned, and a majority of the lower house. Especially 
gratifying was it that the contest had been waged squarelv 
as a single and united party. " It is with peculiar pleasure, 
I inform you." wrote Morris S. Miller of LTtica. to John 

^Proceedings of the Republican Meeting of the Citizens of Albany, 
March 13, 18 10 (Albany, 1810). This address was written by Solomon 
Southwick. The A''. Y. Journal habitually referred to the " Federalist 
Tories;" for example, April 7, 21, 1810. 

•This was in spite of a slight reaction in public sentiment in favor 
of the national administration, whicli followed the publication of the 
so-called Erskine Treaty. King claimed they were published when they 
were, to influence the New York election. King to C. Gore. April 27, 
1809, King Correspondence. 



no 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



Jay, " that in every part of the District the election has been 
bottomed and conducted on decided Federal principles; in 
no County has there been any arrangement or concert with 
either section of the Democratic party." ' But the cautious 
Jay would not suddenly become too sanguine. 

How few of the favorable changes which have taken place are 
imputable to patriotic and correct principles, time and experi- 
ence only can decide . . . Personal and pecuniary considera- 
tions appear to have acquired a more than ordinary degree of 
influence; many sacrifices of public Good have and will yet 
have to be made to them.- 

Although the Federalists, in gaining a majority of the 
assembly, had won the right to name the much-desired 
Council of Appointment, the circumstance that there were 
no members of their party sitting for the middle or southern 
districts in the senate caused them some embarrassment. 
The Councillors from these districts, therefore, must be 
Republicans. But of the two, of which necessity compelled 
selection, one, to the scandal of his party, when chosen 
proved amenable to their persuasion and was content to join 
with the two Federalists to make a majority of the five.^ 

The professions of abhorrence at the system of partisan 
proscription, which the Federalists had made throughout the 
decade, had not been taken very seriously, for it was 
charged with much show of truth that it was Abraham Van 
Vechten in Jay's administration, and not Clinton, who 

'May II, i8c9, Jay Correspondence. 

*Jay to M. S. Miller, May 22, 1809, ibid. 

*J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, pp. 280-282, for a dis- 
cussion of the " Robert Williams Council," which this treachery gave 
to the Federalists. Tt will be remembered that the Council consisted 
of the governor, and one senator from each of the four great sena- 
torial districts, these latter chosen by the assembly. 



NEJV METHODS AND A VICTORY m 

should have the credit or the blame of its invention. It v/as 
therefore no great surprise that the new council straight- 
way set out to expel the officers of government, from the 
well-remunerated mayor of New York to the inspector of 
staves and lieading in the smallest hamlet in the state — in 
all six thousand more or less. The disposition of the 
mayoralty elicited a contest. Some men of higher principles 
among the party, like Van Vechten, proposed a self-denying 
measure of cutting down the compensation, known to be 
some fifteen thousand dollars, tO' a figure more proportionate 
to the pay of other state officials, and Richard Harison, wha 
was familiar with the city charter, promised to prepare a 
bill to serve this purpose. Troup, who was first recom- 
mended as a candidate, was quite in favor of reduction, but 
when because of his engagements as land-agent he withdrew 
his name, the other applicants were not as generous and the 
matter was soon dropped. Jacob Radcliffe was at last ap- 
pointed, though the supporters of Colonel Richard Varick 
and Nathaniel Pendleton well nigh broke up the party in 
the city.^ As to other lucrative appointments there was 
likewise much loud disagreement, and Troup writes that in 
disgust he had "withdrawn all communion respecting ap- 
pointments.^ 

^Proceedings of the Republican Meeting of the Citizens of Albany, 
p. 8 et scq.; cf. H. L. McBain, op. cit. 

' Troup to King, January 12 and February 27, 1810, W. W. Van Ness 
to King, February 8, 1810, King Correspondence ; also De Witt Clinton 
Mss., March 17, 1810. 

^ " It is asserted by some who pretend to know, that Williams will not 
agree to Morris's appointment to the clerkship ; and that nothing will 
be done with this office until after election. From appearances Gar- 
denier now stands a better chance for that office than Morris — Benson 
is here asserting the claims of his brother to the same office; but I 
conjecture without any probability of success. .Benson says he would 
not have the office himself if offered to him. He is contending for 
principle, and this demands his brother's restitution. A more ob- 



112 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

This patronage was but the first course of a feast which 
the Federalists hoped might be continued. They determined 
for the first time in a decade, to name a candidate for gov- 
ernor, and nearl}^ four months )>elore the spring election of 
1810, a meeting held in Albany nominated Jonas Piatt of 
Oneida, recently elected to the senate by a large majority. 
Colonel Nicholas Fish, the banker, was selected for lieuten- 
ant governor. It was generally understood that the amiable 
Tompkins, w-hose suspected preference for Madison and 
the Virginians had not as yet cost him the support of 
Clinton, would stand for re-election, and the campaign 
was soon under way. The Federalists warned solemnly 
against the return of Clinton's nepotism, claiming that in 
the first two years of Tompkins' administration many 
cousins of the family had been pensioned from the school 
fmid.^ Republicans, united for the moment as to Clin- 
tonians and Martling Men. disdained to talk of favoritism 
w'hile the Federalist Council carried out its own proscription, 
and as we have seen, they again trumped up the charge of 
Toryism to make odious their enemies. Labored essays by 
the Federalists were produced to demonstrate that this 
charge was quite unfair," and in their songs they carefully 
addressed themselves as Whigs, but for all this it was easy 
for their enemies to charge them with the prejudices of 
aristocrats. Their candidate w'ho, w^hen in Congress, had 
supported the Sedition Law " had recently proclaimed his 
p<X)r opinion of democracy : 

jectionable doctrine than that of principle could not be broached. To 
urge it is to make yourself ridiculous — and accordingly the Judge is 
laughed out." Troup to King, February 27, 1810, Kittg Correspondence. 

' See broadside, " Piatt and Liberty, A New Historical Song for 
the New- York Election, 1819, 22 verses, to be sung slowly to the tune 
of Yankee Doodle or of Wilkes' Wriggle," Emmett Collection, 11,400; 
see also N. Y. Evening Post, April 12, 1810. 

' For example, A'. Y. Evening Post, April 16, 1810. 

' Washington Register, quoted in N . Y. Journal, April 24, 1810. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY n^ 

Where two or three are met together for factious purposes 
[he said ironically] even there is the Majesty of the People in 
the midst of them. To a man of common sense and honesty 
it is a stumbling block ; to a man without ambition it is foolish- 
ness . . . Within the limits of the constitution, I may occasion- 
ally be willing to be employed, but the office of your servant I 
will never submit to.^ 

"If you want a master, vote for General Platr," responded 
the Republican newspapers." 

The Federalists later claimed that their enemies stirred 
up class prejudice; they said the voters were assured 

that the rich and the poor had separate interests ; that the 
cartmen and the mechanics were held cheap by the merchants ; 
and that the buying and selling part of the community were al- 
ways opposed, in all things to the laboring part: That, let what 
would happen, it must be the poor only who would be sufferers : 
but as to the federalists they were all rich and the natural 
enemies of republicans.' 

The imputation of such theories the Republicans did not 
deny, but rather justified them by appeals to the dignity of 
laborers. The cartmen and the mechanics were as necessan' 
to their haughty masters, they maintained, as the Tor}' 
lordlings were to them.* Such exhortation moved the 
Evening Post to say, that in its apprehension democracy and 
republicanism were not convertible terms. "The tendencv 
of the former is to anarchy and misrule, whilst that of the 
latter is to produce order, to cultivate natural liberty, protect 
the rights of citizens, impart to the Government stability, 
honor and virtue." ° 

' Quoted in Proceedings of Republican Meeting . . . Albany, . . . t8io, p. 8. 
^A'. Y. Journal, April 7, 1810. 
A'. Y. Evening Post, May 3, 181 1. 
^ N. Y. Journal, April 7, 21. 1810. 
'A. Y. Herald. May 2. 1810. 



114 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



General Piatt had once in the senate called for applause 
for British magnanimity in the spontaneous disavowal of 
the attack upon the " Chesapeake," providing thus another 
text to his opponents. The Federalist traders and their 
friends, of course, made no secret of their strong aversion 
to a breach with the " mother country," and their cause was 
watched with much solicitude by British agents in New 
York and Washington, yet there were no charges of a 
treacherous connivance such as those which passed so freely 
to the east^ In the campaign they tried to turn the scale 
against their enemies by fastening upon them the awkward 
and absurd name of " French Tories." to counteract the 
sentiment of gratitude borne toward France as our ally in 
the Revolution.^ A campaign song explained: 

" The French, 'tis true, in their own way, 
Look'd steady on : but seem'd shy ; 
Until we fought; and gain'd the day; 
Then soon became our ally." ^ 

The embargo was, of course, still a major issue in party 
politics, and the merchants and the farmers were advised 
to vote for " Piatt, Commerce, and the Constitution," * 

'"In spite, however, of the vehemence of the Senate, Mr. J[ackson] 
states that FederaHsm is constantly gaining ground in New York, and 
that the sentiments of all Classes of People are every day becoming 
more favorable to H[is] M[ajesty's] Interests." Mr. Jackson (the 
British agent) to Earl Bathurst, February i6, 1810, in mss. Precis Book 
kept by "The Most Noble the Marquis Wellesley &c. &c. &c." (in 
N. Y. P. L.), p. 55. Later the agent saw that there was small chance 
of electing a Federalist governor or legislature in New York, but said, 
" if the democratick Party evince no greater Talent or Energy than 
has been hitherto seen in their measures their Power will be formid- 
able only to their own country." Ibid., p. 78. See also Jackson to the 
Marquess of Wellesley, ibid., vol. ii, pp. 86 and 162. 

2 N. Y. Journal, April 24. 1810. » " Piatt and Liberty," loc. cit. 

* N. Y. Evening Post, April 16, 1810. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY 115 

while attempts were made to rally to the standard all ship- 
wrights and rope-makers, mariners and smiths/ The Re- 
publican newspapers would not forget the story of Emmett's 
martyrdom, at the hands of Rufus King; ^ but, although the 
Federalists again in New York city ojffered an Americaji 
ticket,^ a serious attempt was made throughout the state to 
get some voters from these "imported patriots," as their 
song suggests: 

" Come Dutch and Yankees, Irish, Scot 
With intermixed relation; 
From whence we came, it matters not; 
We all make, now, one nation," * 

and other groups were especially addressed as, for example, 
the Quakers of Columbia County.^ The Federalists ap- 
pealed to the glories of twenty years before, and though 
they admitted that Adams' presidency was in some ways 
regrettable, denied that the party should be generally 
charged with that responsibility." Since John Adams had 
stood by his son in support of the embargo, his name, 
never glorious in New York state, was now mentioned at 
best with apology/ Indeed their doggerel well sets forth 
the opinion of the party as to the presidential record : 

^iV. Y. Herald, April 21, 25, 1810. 

^jV. Y. Journal, April 21, 1810. 

^ iV. F. Herald, April 7, il, 1810. 

* " Piatt and Liberty." 

*Elisha Williams and J. R. Van Rensselaer of that county had 
worked earnestly to prevent a tax of $10 a head on Quakers for exemp- 
tion from military duty, Hudson Balance, quoted in Albany Gazette, 
April 7, 1808. During the campaign of 1810 Van Buren reports his 
efforts to capture the Quaker vote for the Republicans, Van Buren to 
Clinton, April 19, 1810, DeWitt Clinton Mss. 

^N. Y. Evening Post, April 7, 1810. 

'J, T, Morse, John Adams (Boston, 1896), p. 326. 



1 1 6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

" Through eight bright years the Federal Sun 
Maintained his glorious station; 
While we were rul'd by Washington 
How happy was our nation ! 

Yankee Doodle, we were free; 
Our rights were all protected. 
Our trade was safe in every sea ; 
At home wc were respected. 

" Then Adams 'rose and took the helm 
But could not steer so nice, long: 
That Man's not fit to rule a realm 
^V^^o once goes right — but tmlce wrong. 

Yankee Doodle ; fire and tow ; 

How can that man e'er hit right ; 

Who's sometimes fast — and sometimes slow — 

Who'll sometimes run — and yet tight? " ^ 

But Federalism in New York could not be saved by 
ballads of poetical disclaimer. The unpopular embargo had 
been g-iven up for the milder system of non-intercourse ; the 
ancient grudge against Great Britain was now deepened by 
that government's renunciation of the Erskine treaty; the 
Republicans, then at a truce among themselves, stretched 
every nerve to regain their power of appointment. As a 
result the Federalists lost heavily except in New York City 
and the Albany and Mohawk districts " and the Republicans 
swept the state. 

So closed a decade properly enough, in which humiliaton 
and defeat had been the portion of the Federalists. Their 
tradition and their theory of politics had been repudiated by 
the people of this country, though many of their policies 
were well continued. Fortunately the party, with its bold 
projects of construction, did not die with its defeat. It 
lived on under other names and leaders to supply the 

* " Piatt and Liberty." 

' J. D. Hammond. Political Parties, vol. i, pp. 285-287 ; John T. Irving 
to W. P. Van Ness, May 3. 1810, Van Ness Mss. 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY ny 

courage of great undertakings, but not until it had re- 
sponded somewhat to the spirit of America and been 
liberaHzed into a forbearance as to government by all the 
people. That the party in New York had thus persisted in 
the face of its adversities well shows the impulse of its old 
enthusiasms. It had ordained the system of our govern- 
ment and by its energy and skill in solving the initial prob- 
lems of its conduct, had compelled the admiration of the 
world. Because of this achievement, as with the ''gTand 
old party," which two generations later was considered to 
have saved the fabric from destruction, the cause of Fed- 
eralism could and did command a lo3'alty almost romantic 
in its sentiment. The memory of great personalities like 
Washington and Hamilton made an)^ slowing down of 
party zeal seem much like treason. But the reasons for 
continuance did not all grow out of history. There was a 
consciousness of common interest among the business 
classes, who, as we have shown, made up the unchanging 
core of the Federalist party. In commercial centres like 
New York these men were bound to act together in defense, 
against the antagonism of the planters of the south upon 
the one hand and their allies, the wage-mechanics, on the 
other. In local contests on the chartering of banks as in the 
greater issue of the embargo, the party of the merchants and 
investors had a part to play, but, as we have also seen, this 
group was held together by other ties than those of business. 
Comprising as they did a social class, they realized that a 
weakening of political organization would appear as a sur- 
render of pretensions to consequence and rank, which they 
were not prepared to yield. 

From the morning when John Jay gave up his office of 
governor, the Federalists of New York state were found 
in the minority, forming often a scarce moiety of that. Yet 
in certain sections of the state their dominion was retained, 



n8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

almost never to be seriously challenged. In Albany and 
Rensselaer Counties, for example, elective offices were kept 
within the party. While Van Rensselaer, Williams and 
Van Ness retained their power in Columbia, no Democrat 
of whatsoever faction could look forward to advancement 
by his neighbors. Certain wards in New York city would 
have voted for a branded thief as soon as for a Jacobin. In 
other counties in the east the balance was so even that the 
excitement at elections never slackened. It was natural 
that in all these regions any talk of giving up the Federalist 
party would have been greeted with derision. The success 
these leaders won at home stirred their ambition to keep firm 
the organization in less fortunate localities, in hope of larger 
victories. It urged them to intrigues by which some Fed- 
eralist measures might be smuggled through the legislature, 
or some small bit of patronage be granted by the five great 
arbiters at Albany. Throughout the score of years, or more, 
which marked the slow decline of Federalism, it elected no 
executive to carry on the policies of Jay; yet party effort 
seldom flagged, newspapers were founded and sustained, 
tireless politicians rode through every county from the 
Hudson to the lakes, pamphleteers wrote reams of argu- 
ment, and enthusiasts invoked the halting muse of campaign 
poetry. The secret of this obstinate vitality is found in the 
constant hope of capturing the Council of Appointment. 
1810, 1813 and 18 14 were years of nourishment, at other 
times the prize was tantalizing in its nearness; there was 
always a prospect of electing a majority of the assembly. 

If this appetite for office moved small men to action, the 
statesmen of the party did not despair of bringing in again 
the rule of Federalist principles. The juggling tricks of 
management which had already made the state a by-word, 
the utter lack, as yet, of any larger constructive program, 
that had distinguished those who held control, seemed to 



NEW METHODS AND A VICTORY ng 

them too sad afflictions to be long endured. They rested 
their hopes, as Troup had said, upon the fall of the Demo- 
cratic party by the weight of its own vices and divisions. 
How, by the adoption of a Democratic leader, they drew a 
sharper line between themselves and the Democracy, is to be 
the theme of another chapter. 



CHAPTER VI 

Landholders' Principles 

The hypothesis that economic interest was the inner cause 
of party struggle in the early days of the republic has taken 
on the dignity of an "interpretation." ^ Assume a broad 
antipathy between those whose property was in the soil and 
those who drew their profit from enterprise in trade and 
industry, and a surprisingly long array of facts seem duti- 
fully obedient in illustration. From the coming of the 
peace of 1783 into the first years of the new century, the 
conflict grew more bitter as these diversities with all their 
implications, embodied in the personalities of Hamilton and 
Jefferson, became more clearly realized. Though no one 
would postulate a reasoned, selfish calculation as the only 
basis of partisan allegiance, nor refuse to see the many 
other forces that lift and sway the minds of men, certain 
it is that underneath the surface passion in the cause of 
France or England, deeper, perhaps, than the philosophy 
that formed itself in lalx>red essays in defence of liberty 
or order, and more stable than the personal afifection toward 
one champion or another battling in the field of politics, 
was this consciousness of divergent economic interests to 
]ye helped or hindered by new laws. But in New York, at 
least, as we shall see, the lines of party demarcation 
throughout the first decades of the nineteenth century, 
seemed to fade somewhat and grow uncertain. For this 
also there were many causes, but one seeking for a diag- 
nosis of conditions which allowed this softening of an 

1 C. A. Beard. Economic Interpretation of the Constitution and 
Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (N. Y., I9"5) ; and " Poli- 
tics and Education," Teachers College Record, vol. xvii, no. 3, pp. 1-12. 
Professor Beard presents the antithesis as between farmers and bond- 
holders, but the capital of the latter was generally applied as well to 
other enterprise. 
120 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 121 

animosity but recently so virulent, reasonably turns to an 
examination of this economic factor, to which so much has 
recently been traced. Was there in New York the same 
well marked opposition between the man of lands and the 
man of bonds and shares of stock as has l>een notic«i in 
some sections of the country ? 

A hundred years ago the city of New York, novi' 
the doorway of a nation, was a great commercial city in its 
promise rather than as yet in its achievement/ Though the 
merchants' ships were turning toward the Orient ^ and their 
whan'es were piled with bales from over all the seven seas, 
the path of the trading schooner did not seem the only 
way to wealth as it did from Massachusetts." But there 
were fortunes for hazard in New York, saved from the 
wreckage of the war and ready for what investment would 
secure the largest income. One attractive prospect was fur- 
nished by the wide and unmarked lands, wild, perhaps, but 
reported to be fertile, that stretched out to the north and 
west within the boundary of what was to become the 
Empire State. The state itself was rich in land, even before 
it compounded with Connecticut and Massachusetts for 
their claims and holdings.* Those officers like the Mor- 
rises," whose war claims were paid by grants of land, saw 

^ Cf. E. E. Pratt, Industrial Causes of Congestion of Population in 
New York City (Columbia University Studies in History, Economics 
and Public Law, vol. xliii, 1911), p. 13. 

-T. Pitkin, Statistical View of the United States (Hartford, 1816), 
p. 208. 

^ Ibid., see tables of tonnage owned in the different states in 1810, 
PP- 391-392. New York City was just coming to the lead. 

*J. H. Hotchkin, History of Western New York (N. Y., 1848), pp. 
I -10. This work is less useful to our purpose than its title promises, 
being concerned almost exclusively with the progress of the Presbyterian 
church. 

^Richard and Lewis Morris were so granted three thousand acres 
in what was then Montgomery County. M. A. Hamm, Famous Fainilies 
of New York, vol. ii, p. 34. 



122 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

m these the bases for a larger business that might be 
prudently increased by purchase. 

The men of wealth in New York city had no settled 
prejudice against holding real estate; not only were there 
close connections with the Schuylers and Van Rensselaers, 
but in most families of the gentry there were large-acred 
cousins, of whose prosperity there could be no doubt. A 
description of the great estate at Duanesburgh with forty 
thousand acres in Albany County/ must have stirred the 
fancy as related in Judge Duane's drawing room in Nassau 
Street;- or that of '' Hoffman's Castle" at Red Hook in 
Dutchess County, owned by relatives of the fashionable 
Wall Street Hoffmans f or of the princely home at old Fort 
Miller where reigned the famous Lady Kitty Duer," ■* who 
now and then came down to bring new splendor to the 
balls at the Assembly Rooms." The attention of large in- 
vestors was already fixed upon these lands while they were 
still dispensed by the colony land office, and the bidding 
grew far brisker in the early days of statehood. As one 
glances down the pages of the Calendar of Land Papers ^ 

*A. A. Yates, Schenectady County, Its History (N. Y., 1902), 
pp. 410-412; M. A. Hamm, op. cit., vol. i. p. 123. James Duane retired 
to this estate after his failure in business in 1792. Duanesburgh was 
included when Schenectady County was formed. 

"^New York Directory (1793), p. 44; see Emmett Collection, number 
13,246. 

^F. Hasbrouck, History of Dutchess County (Poughke«psie, 1909). 
p. 428; J. H. Beers, Biographical Record of Dutchess County (Chicago, 
1897), p. 571; A'^. Y. Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. v, p. 
117; New York Directory, 1800; M. A. Hamm, op. cit., vol. i, pp. I73. 
178. The Hoffman holdings in Ulster County also were extensive. 

*Wm. L. Stone (Jr.), Washington County (N. Y.. 1901), p. 131. 

^C. W. Bowen, History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inaugura- 
tion of George Washington, pp. 57-59- 

•The full title is Calendar of New York Colonial Mss. indorsed Land 
Papers, 1643-1803 (Albany, 1864). 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 123 

one sees many familiar Federalist names, William Bayard, 
the Bleeckers, C. D. Golden, Duane, James Emott, Nicholas 
Fish, and many others, who held land by grant or purchase 
from the state. Alexander Hamilton invested all his surplus 
earnings in the lands about Oswego ^ which would pay a 
rich dividend only after years of waiting, so that his tragic 
death left his widow " land poor," as the phrase went, and a 
fund had to be subscribed by friends to make sure her 
comfort.^ His friend, Cornelius I. Bogert,^ had large hold- 
ings in what is now Hamilton County, while the Roosevelts * 
had purchased largely in what is now Oneida,^ James 
Watson, the Federalist United States senator, held over sixty 
thousand acres, somewhat to the north. *^ The extent of 

'J. C. Churchill, Landmarks of Oswego County (Syracuse, 1895), 
p. 13. 

^Gouvemeur Morris to Robert Morris, July 14, 1804 (A. C. Morris, 
The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. ii, p. 459) : " Our 
friend Hamilton has been suddenly cut off in embarrassments which 
would have required years of professional industry to set right: a debt 
of between fifty thousand and sixty thousand dollars, a property which 
in time may sell for seventy or eighty thousand, but which if brought 
to the hammer, would not in all probability fetch fifty." Matthew 
Clarkson to Rufus King, August 20, 1894, King Correspondence, vol. 
iv, p. 404, speaks of the subscription. The following from J. A. 
Hamilton, Reminiscences, p. 78, is interesting: "At a dinner party in 
New York, shortly after the close of the Revolutionary War, at which 
were present Messrs. G. Morris, John Jay, Richard Hanson. John 
Delafield, Robert Lenox, Nicholas Low, J. O. Hoffman, and Alexander 
Hamilton, the question was discussed whether the purchase of wild 
lands or of lots in the suburbs of the city would be the more profit- 
able. [Some, including Hamilton] invested in lands in the northern 
counties of the state." 

^ Land Papers, p. 923. 

* Cf. C. A. Beard, Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, p. 270. 

*D. E. Wager, Oneida County (Boston, 1896), pp. 119-121. 

^Documentary History of New York (Albany, 1850), vol. iii, pp. 647, 
653, 654; Jenkins, Political Parties, pp. 50, 67, y^, 84. Watson was also 
candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1801, (A. Hamilton) Address to 
the Electors of the State of New York (pamphlet, N. Y., i8or), p. 3, 
and for Congress, C. H. Hunt, Life of Edward Livingston, p. 74. 



124 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

speculation in unsettled land that centered in the counting 
rooms of a Federalist firm like LeRoy, Bayard and Co. 
seems hardly credible ; ^ no considerable section of the state 
remained unmentioned in their ledgers. The subject of 
Federalist land holding in New York, indeed, could be 
properly examined only by a long laborious research. 

Let us take for our example a single county, St. Law- 
rence, almost the farthest and then the least accessible from 
the city of New York. Here great tracts of land were held 
by General Knox,^ John Delafield,^ Nicholas Low,* Josiah 
Ogden Hoffman," Frederic DePeyster,* Philip Brasher,' 
Garrett Van Home.'* Stephen Van Rensselaer,® Philip 
Schuyler,"' David M. Clarkson,'' and, greatest in the area 
of his holding. Gouverneur Morris. ^^ These were men 

' This was the greatest private commercial enterprise New York ever 
knew up to the eighteen-thirties, Barret, Old Merchants of New York 
(N. Y., 1862), pp. 31, 46, 160-164, 302-305, etc. There are thirteen boxes 
and more than two thousand unassorted pieces of manuscript, to- 
gether with twenty-five volumes, dealing with the operations of this 
company, in the collection of the New York Public Library. 

*F. B. Hough, History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, 
pp. 241, 246. The section of Dr. Hough's work which deals with early 
land arrangements is fully documented. 

3 Ibid., pp. 243, 246, 247, etc. * Ibid., loc. cit. 

* Gates Curtis, Memorial of St. Lawrence County (Syracuse, 1894), 
p. 84. 

*J. H. French, Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York 
State (Syracuse, i860), p. 576. The DePeysters were intermarried 
with the Van Homes, Clarksons, etc. W. A, Duer, Reminisrences of 
An Old New Yorker, p. 37. 

'T. Weed, Autobiography, etc., vol. i, pp. 394, 40i- 

•Hough, op. cit., p. 244. 

'French, op. cit., p. 578. There are towns in St. Lawrence County 
named Depeyster, Brasher and Rensselaer. 

'"Article in N. Y. Times, June 7, 1903. 

" Hough, p. 244. " French, pp. 577. 580. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



125 



of wealth and influence in the Federalist party, but they 
were as keenly interested in the politics of land as in that 
of trade or banks or industrial securities. Neither the one 
nor the other could be neglected by lawmakers at Wash- 
ington or Albany without grave havoc in the counting books 
of these investors. 

No statesman of New York had been heard with more 
respect in party councils than Gouverneur Morris. Learned 
in the lore and technic of governmental science, acquainted 
with the courts of Europe, generous in service for the public 
good, possessed of an enormous fortune, he seemed a type 
of what was best and most respectable in Federalism; and 
no one more than he was representative of that party's 
landed interest in New York. The boundaries of his own 
estate of fifteen hundred acres at Morrisania ^ did not limit 
his concern in the welfare of real property. He purchased 
heavily not only in the St. Lawrence region, where the 
towns of Gouverneur and Morristown now remain as 
monuments," but also in the western wilderness." With a 
dauntless zeal to see and know, he made his way time and 
again by forest trail and bark canoe along the Mohawk 
Valley and slowly westward to Niagara, or through the 
woodlands of the north to Montreal.* When in Januar}^ 
18 t6. Congress addressed itself to the problem of a per- 
manent revenue in time of peace. "^ the New England 
Federalists, in the interest of the shipping class, arrayed 
themselves against the great plantation owners of the south ** 

^ Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. ii, p. 378; J. A. 
Hamilton, who settled the estate, gives an account of Morris's property 
in his Reminiscences, pp. 46-47. 

* French, loc. cit. ■^^JDtary and Letters, vol. ii, p. 37f). 
*Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 390, 439, 513, 520, 591, etc. 

^Annals of Congress, 1816-1817, p. 687, etc. 

* Henry Adams, History of the United States (N. Y., 1891 ), vol. 
ix, pp. 112-115. 



126 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

in the contest as to whether land or imports should l>ear the 
burden of taxation. The New York Federalists, encum- 
bered by much unproductive land, were by no means at one 
with their Massachusetts friends. Many, it cannot be 
doubted, subscribed to the doctrine laid down by Gouverneur 
Morris in a letter to Rufus King: ^ 

I fear we differ in opinion on the subject of taxation . . . 
Some patriots (sans terres, if not sans culotte) cry out " Tax 
land-speculators and oblige them to sell." Take care, gentle- 
men patriots. If taxing speculators should become fashion- 
able, stocks may perchance be annoyed. . . . Speculators, as 
such, are not respectable, but they are necessary and in no 
case more so than in the settlement of wild land. It has been 
tried to prevent accumulation of large tracts in few hands by 
confining grants to small tracts, but experience has proved 
that, until rich men purchase up these small tracts, the country 
cannot be settled. It is absurd to suppose a person with scarce 
a second shirt to his back can go two or three hundred miles 
to look out a farm, have it surveyed, travel back again to the 
office for a patent, etc., clear the land, cut a road, make a settle- 
ment, and build house and barn, and then an owner under a 
prior grant may come forward and take possession. ... As 
things now stand, the conflict of title is generally between men 
able to stand the shock,^ 

'Jared Sparks, Life and Correspondence of Gouverneur Morris 
(Boston, 1832), vol. iii, pp. 343-344. Of course this attitude was by no 
means new in 1816, as the following from the A^. Y. Spectator, January 
4, 1804, dealing with the action of the New England Federalists and 
others in the Congress. 1803, makes clear : " We do not here intend 
to charge the individuals who have conducted the business in this, or 
in other states, with any intentional mismanagement. But, that the 
Proprietors of uncultivated lands have, contrary to the spirit and in- 
tent of the law, sustained immense losses, no one, at all informed on the 
subject, can doubt. And it would gratify the feelings of the friends of 
justice to see a Bill passed in Congress, that would cut up the evil 
by the roots." 

»In a letter to Randolph Harrison, May 3. 1816, Diary and Letters, 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 127 

His argument, it seems, was not in vain, for King later 
changed his mind and cast his vote against so disagreeable a 
discrimination/ If the interpretation of real and personal 
estate as the basis of our parties be correct, some explana- 
tion of the waning vigor of the Federalism of New York 
may proceed from this uncertainty in so important a 
political division. 

There is another phase of Federalist land holding which 
must not be neglected. The conquest of the wilderness by 
pioneers from the old communities along the sea coast has 
been the stirring theme of much of our historical writing- 
We have followed with keen interest the great migration 
from New England with its stalwart men of thrift, of fear- 
less thought and deep religious purpose,^ and those who 
threaded through the southern Alleghenies to lay out broad 
plantations beside the Mississippi.^ In a smaller and more 
intimate way there is much of interest in the expansion of 
the New York gentry, and in how Federalist families came 
to build their homes in lands cleared from the forest. We 
have formed some notion of their purchases, sometimes a 
hundred thousand acres, sometimes more. To convert their 
holdings into a more manageable wealth they sent prom- 
ising young friends into the wilderness, as agents, who could 
bargain with the settlers. Then, full of faith in their great 

vol. ii, p. 599, he says : " Observe, I pray you, that in England there is 
no unproductive land. Even their pleasure grounds yield something 
in venison and the pasturage of cattle, besides the increase of timber. 
The British land tax, therefore, falls on a revenue. But not a fifth 
part of our land yields anything." See also his letter to Moss Kent, 
March 3, 1816, Sparks, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 350. 
' R. King to G. Morris, March 15, 1816, King Correspondence. 

-L. K. Mathews, The Expansion of New England (Boston, 1909), 
ch. vii. 

^Documentary History of American Industrial Society (Cleveland, 
1909), vol. ii, pp. 219 ct seq. 



128 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

enterprise, they advised their law clerks to essay the oppor- 
tunities of a new country; then, lastly, younger sons them- 
selves set out with wives and families to build stately 
houses on their great domains. It is a story not without 
romance, and certainly of great importance in accounting 
for the spread of Federalist influence throughout the inland 
counties of the state/ This subject, also, in its scope for- 
Ijids a general treatment within our compass, and for con- 
venience's sake we may turn again to St. Lawrence Coimty 
to trace this second phase of Federalist connection with 
the land. 

In 1792 Samuel Ogden - with Josiah Ogden Hoffman 
ixHight an extensive tract of land sloping northward to the 
shore of the St. Lawrence, and two years later sent a young 
friend, Nathan Ford, to explore it and conduct its settle- 
ment.^ A man of force, like most of his profession, and c. 
Federalist like John Delancey * and John Delafield who had 
gone before him to this St. Lawrence Valley,' he rose to 
prominence in the politics of the county of which he was 
the pioneer,® as a public official ' and as a leader of his 

' Here, in the early days of the republic, the influence of the Federalist 
party was very small ; see O. G. Libby, Distribution of the Vote of the 
Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution (Wisconsin Studies in 
History, Economic and Political Science, Vol. I), p. 18. It is interest- 
ing to compare the party's fate beyond the Alleghenies, see H. C. 
Hockett "Federalism and the West" in the Turner Essays (N. Y.. 
1910), pp. 113-135- 

'The Ogdens were a great land-owning family. David A. Ogden 
purchased about 200,000 acres of the Indian lands in western New 
York, " The League of the Six Nations," in Nezv York Cizil List. 1880. 
p. 212, et seq. 

■• F. B. Hough, ol>. cit., p. 589. 

* Robert Troup to Rufus King, April 4, 1809. King Correspondence. 

■' Land Papers, pp. 748-766. '^ G. Curtis, op. cit., p. i5S- 

■ iV. F. Civil List, i^. p. 492. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



129 



party/ Riding far and wide through this sparsely settled 
country, the arbiters of rents and payments, often in position 
to be of service to the settler, the influence of land agents 
like Judge Ford, or Benjamin Raymond, the agent and 
surveyor for Clarkson and Van Home," was considerable 
indeed. But the land agents were not left unsupported, 
in the offices of the distingTiished lawyers of the city there 
were other young men of ambition. Louis Hasbrouck, a 
student under J. O. Hofifman and Cadwallader D. Colden, 
by the counsel of his patrons and of his friend, Judge Ford, 
set forth from New York City in 1804 to build a home in 
far St. Lawrence," wending a slow way with family and 
slave, wagons and pack-horses. Here, agreeable to his 
political training, he served as the first clerk of the coimty, 
as assemblyman and senator, and was a leader of his party, 
Federalist, National Republican and Whig.* In that same 
year, encouraged by the progress of his brother Nathan, 
David Ford, a zealous politician of the Federalist school, 
came in 1804 to be the pioneer of Morristown.^ John Fine, 
a graduate of Columbia in the class of 1809 with Murray 
Hoflfman, Bishop Onderdonk and Dr. Francis, likewise 
came northward six years later to grow rich in land and 

^ E. g. he was the delegate to the FedcraHst meeting. March 1808. 
Albany Gazette, April 1808, and to the convention that nominated 
Rufus King for Governor in 1816. W:n. Henderson to R. King. Febru- 
ary 20, 1816, King Correspondence. Judge Ford's FederaHsm was so 
well known that when in the sack of Ogdensburg in the War of 181 2, 
his house escaped pillage, wise-acres drew an inference, see Albany 
Argus, April 9, 1813. 

^Letter from William Raymond, Esq., to the author. Benjamin 
Raymond was made "Judge and Justis" by the Federal Council of Ap- 
pointment of 1813, Albany Argus, March 5. 1813. 

*F. B. Hough, op. cit., p. 594. 

*In 180J, Ck-il List. t88q, pp. 380, +25, 540; T. Weed, .-Intobiography, 
<•/(.-.. p. 414. 

Hough, op. cit., p. 589. 



130 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



play his part in politics.^ Young lawyers like land agents 
contributed to build a modest aristocracy.^ 

But these were not all. The gentry who centered in the 
drawing rooms of those fashionable streets running east- 
ward from Broadway, all had their coats of arms, and 
history of knights and squires and manor houses with wide- 
stretching acres in the counties of old England.^ To lord it 
over docile tenantry, and ride at hunt through one's own 
forest, made up a part of what was most attractive in the 
family legends of a storied past. It is not surprising, then, 
to see some younger sons of these land holders fascinated 
by the prospect of reproducing in open reaches of the north 
something of the dignity and spaciousness of the life of the 
country gentleman they so naturally admired. David A. 
Ogden, who had been the partner of Alexander Hamilton 
in law-practice,* gave up his professional connection in 1812 

to carry into execution a plan which he had for some years 
cherished, to remove to the St. Lawrence, and fix his permanent 
residence on its beautiful shores. In pursuance of this, he built 
a fine and substantial dwelling on the island opposite the village 
of Waddington and commenced its improvement as a farm, 
which comprises nearly eight hundred acres. He was at this 
time in the prime of life and carried with him those tastes for 
rural employments, which he had imbibed in early life, which 
with his favorite literary pursuits, were well calculated to 

1 Hough, of}, cit., p. 586. A town was named for him. For various 
reasons Judge Fine subsequently became a Democrat. 

^ There is no attempt to prove here that all land agents or that all 
young lawyers from New York city were Federalists, but many who 
were of that tradition contributed, in association with the resident 
proprietors, to bring a political influence alien to the frontier spirit. 
Cf. F. J. Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History 
(Madison, 1894), pp. 27-29, where the frontier democracy is discussed. 

^N. Y. Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. v, pp. 115-118. 

* In this he was associated with his brother, Applcton's Cyclopedia 
of American Biography, vol. iv, p. 560. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 131 

render his residence agreeable, not only to himself, but to 
those who might associate with him.^ 

But the great stone house surrounded by its grove of maples 
was renowned not only for its gracious hospitality and at- 
mosphere of an exotic culture; the plans of Federalist 
politics were often there matured in council. The pro- 
prietor represented the county in the assembly two years 
after he took up his residence, twice was county judge and 
served a term in Congress.' while younger relatives were 
prominent, Gouverneur Ogden as a Federalist congressman,' 
and William Henry Vining, a nephew of the latter, elected 
to the assembly in 1821.* 

The Ogdens in the splendid isolation of their island were 
not left to be the only county family ; other names familiar 
in Federalist annals were to be transplanted to St. Lawrence. 
Soon after the close of the War of 18 12 came the Clarksons, 
to improve their holdings by the Racquette River,'' building 
noble houses, " Holcroft," " Homestead," " Woodstock,'' 
clearing forests into meadows reminiscent of the fields of 
Yorkshire whence their ancestors had come.® Next came 

* Hough, op. cit., p. 600. See also Ogden-Ford papers, printed, in part, 
ibid., pp. 372-401. 

2 Civil List, 1882, pp. 302, 263, 451. He did not serve as senator, in 
spite of the misprint of his name for that of Isaac Ogden, the Democrat 
from Walton, N. Y., in the A''. Y. Senate Journal, 1816, p. i. Cf. Civil 
List, 1882, p. 254. 

'W. W. Van Ness to R. King, January 31, 1816, King Correspondence. 
Gouverneur Ogden also served as Surrogate, Civil List, 1882, p. 370. 

* Civil List, 1882, p. 307, and Hough, op. cit., pp. 611-612. 

^G. Curtis, St. Laurence County, part ii, p. 34; The Clarksons of 
New York (N. Y., 1875, in the New York Genealogical Society- 
Collection). 

* W. W. Spooner, Historic Families of America (N. Y., 1908), 
vol. iii, pp. 276-286. The Clarksons had begun early in land specu- 
lation, an entry in the Land Papers, p. 49, recording a title taken by 
Matthew Clarkson, the immigrant, in 1697. 



132 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

the son aiul namesake of Richard Harison, the Tory-Fed- 
eralist leader in the city of New York/ laying out a manor 
house, with high wall and col>bled court, looking down upon 
the long rapids of the River Grasse.- Here he too strove 
to reproduce old England and give the comitry-side its at- 
mosphere. I have before me a score of volumes from thai 
jx^rtion of the family librar>- which was so laboriously 
carried with wagon-loads of furnishings to the seat estab- 
lished in this country won so recently from wilderness. 
Mill's Husbandry ^^ impressive in five volumes, and Patoun's 
Treatise on Surzfeying, these had no doubt been brought 
from old Berkshire, years before, with Pope and Gibbon ; 
the poems of St. John Honeywood and J. G. Brooks, they 
had bought as good New Yorkers ; and in Ixmnd files of 
agricultural magazines throughout the 'thirties the final 
phase is represented. Thus in a library we see the outline 
of a family histor}-. Some miles to the south and west a 
spacious home was built by Henry Van Rensselaer, fourth 
son of the Patroon,'" and near Ogdensburg there lived the 
Parishes, the friends of Gouverneur Morris.*^ Though 

' E. B. O 'Callaghan, " Biograpliical Sketch of Francis Harison." 
A^. Y. Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. ix, pp. 49-51 : 
J. S. Jenkins. History of Political Parties in New York, p. 2Z ct scq.; 
Rob't Troup to R. King, April 4, 1809, King Correspondence ; N. Y. 
Civil List, 1880, pp. 124, 412. 413. 

-The community that grew around this mansion they named Morley 
from a relative of the Harison family. J. H. French. Gazetteer oj 
the State of New York, p. 575. 

■'London. 1765. 

♦Archibald I'atoun, A Complete Treatise of Practical Navigation 
. ..to which arc added the useful theories of Mcusuration, Surtfcying. 
and Gauging (London, 1762). 

*G. Curtis, St. Lazifrence County, p. 325- He served a term in 
Congress, 1841-1843, N. Y. Civil List, 1889, p. ^x^s. 

•Morris. Diary and Letters, vol. ii, pp. 74. 3Sq. 407. 4i5. 4''"^. 43". 44.^- 
£tc., etc. The Parishes had come to .\merica on Morris' suggestion. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



133 



themselves but indirectly interested in party struggles, they 
had niany a line of iniluence that ran through the county ' 
from their homes — those mansions looking out upon ex- 
tended parks and prim and formal gardens, fenced in by a 
long-remembered great brick wall over-grown with roses.' 
Here President Monroe was entertained " and distinguished 
visitors from Washington, New York or Albany always 
stopped to spend a night or two in a gentleman's establish- 
ment of the traditional type.* " All had an old baronial 
air, and one could easily imagine the entire place brought 
bodily from some foreign country and set down in the 
midst of this quiet town." " 

So these families came, bringing in a spirit of aristocracy 
which left its mark, as we have seen, upon the county 
politics. That now they have for the most part disappeared 
adds a touch of pathos to the story. Theirs was a spirit 
foreign to the custom of the country ; while others made 
their way into the w^ilderness to be rid of every vestige of 
the feudal system, these came to perpetuate so much of that 
tradition as could be saved. But the aloofness of this gentry, 
so proper to their social theory, could not be comfortably 
preserved, and, bound by an inflexible endogamous rule, 
these branches of the families slowly withered and passed 
into memory, though leaving after them an influence that 
increased respect for " the few, the rich and the well-bom.'' 

But it should not be thought that St. Lawrence County 
was singular in these respects, or has been unfairly taken 
as a type. Change the names of Ogdens and their town of 

1 Curtis, op. cit., p. 153. ~ N. Y. Times, June 7. 1903. 

^Curtis, lo-c. cit. 

*H. G. Spafford, Gazetteer of the State of New York (Albany, 1824), 
p. 404. 

'Curtis, op. fit., p. 350. 



134 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Ogdensburg for the Platts and Plattsburg/ or trace the 
fortunes of the Lows of Lowville, settled by the son of 
Nicholas Low," or of their neighbor, Moss Kent, brother of 
the chancellor," or of William Henderson, whose lands lay 
along the shore of Lake Ontario ; "^ turn to the three LeRoys, 
brothers-in-law of Daniel Webster,^ who gave their name 
to a town near the Genesee ® and the same condition is 
observed. Instead of Nathan Ford insert the name of 
Egbert Benson. Jr.,^ as land agent, or that of Colonel Robert 
Troup, who at Geneva managed the great Pulteney estate,** 
and who bore a leading part in the Federalism of Nev/ 

' D. M. Hurd, History of Clinton and Franklin Counties (Phila- 
delphia, 1882), pp. 149-156, 176. Zephaniah Piatt settled here, bring- 
ing his family and slaves in 1801. The town had been founded under 
his direction about twenty years before, see A*'. Y. Assembly Journal, 
J 792- 1 793, p. 14. 

'F. B. Hough, History of Lewis County, pp. 135, ^2>7, 142, 163; also 
DeWitt Clinton to Cornelius Low, November 25, 1820, CUnton Mss. 
(Letterbook V). 

^Ibid., p. 163, Jenkins, Political Parties, p. 71, and N. Y. Genealogical 
and Biographical Record, vol. iv, p. 85. 

♦Henderson was an important politician in New York having been 
the party candidate for assembly in 1807 (A'. Y. Spectator, April 22, 
1807) and for Congress in 1808 {Albany Gazette, April 25, 1808). 
He settled in what is now Jefferson County, F. B. Hough, Lewis 
County, p. 82. 

»G. T. Curtis, Life of Daniel Webster (N. Y., 1870), vol. i, p. 345- 

« F. W. Beers, Gazetteer and Biographical Record of Genesee County 
(Syracuse, 1890), p. 480. Daniel LeRoy was the son-in-law of 
Nicholas Fish, M. A. Hamm, Famous Families of New York, vol. i, 
p. 139. 

■He was the nephew of the famous FederaHst judge, and became 
a man of importance in the west, F. W. Beers, loc. cit.; letter to 
DeWitt Chnton, December 30. 1818, CUnton Mss.; to P. G. Childs. 
February 5, 1822, Childs Mss.; and to John Tayler, March 13, 1815. 
Tayler Mss. 

•* O. Turner, History of the Pioneer Settlement of the Phelps and 
Gorham Purchase (Rochester, 1851), pp. 279-280. 



c 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 135 



York/ and the story is repeated, varying in details but 
broadly similar to that we have rehearsed. Sometimes, as 
with the stock of General Jacob Morris - who, like General 
North of Duanesburgh,^ had gone inland to improve his 
family holdings, an offshoot was sent far to the westward 
to reproduce in a second and a third series, as it were, the 
landed gentry of New York.* The Morrises had increased 
their grant so that when the General made his slow way up 
the Susquehanna valley as a herald of civilization, his 
share amounted to five thousand acres.'"* Setting his 
slaves ^ to fell the trees and saw them into boards, he built 
a home in what became the town of ]\Iorris, and then turned 
much of his attention to the politics of that young country. 
He was the first Otsego County clerk, served three years iti 
the assembly and four years in the senate of the state.'^ 
In the early days of the nev/ century the county was the 
scene of bitter struggles at elections.^ Jedediah Peck, the 
shrewd itinerant preacher, organized the nev; democracy, 
while General Morris and Judge Cooper were the Federalist 
leaders.^ 

1 His name headed the FederaHst nominations for presidential elec- 
tors in 1812, A'. Y. Senate Journal, 1812, p. 23. There were of course 
some Republican land-holders and land agents, but they were not 
numerous. 

* M. A. Hamm, Famous Families of New York, vol. ii, p. 34. 
^Ibid., vol. i, p. 123, and Appleton, o/>, cit., vol. iv, p. 534. 

* History of Dane County, Wisconsin (Chicago, 1880), p. 1016. W. A. 
P. Morris, son of General Jacob, went to Madison, Wisconsin, in 1870. 
His daughter married and went to live in North Dakota. 

*E. F. Bacon, Otsego County (Oneonta, 1902), p. 32. 

*H. Child, Gazetteer of Otsego County (Syracuse, 1872), p. 79, 
for examples of manumission. 

' A^. Y. Civil List, 1889, pp. 373, 374. 4I4. 539- 

^See Political Wars of Otsego County; or the Downfall of Jacob- 
inism, pamphlet (Cooperstown, 1796). 

'F. W. Halsey, The Old New York Frontier (N. Y., 1901), pp. 



^36 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

William Cooper was the mirror of partisan perfection as 
a Federalist squire/ Coming north soon after the Revo- 
lution, he became the master of great estates but vaguely 
}30unded; when the country grew in population he re- 
called with honest pride that "there were 40,000 souls 
holding land, directly or indirectly, under me." In 1800 
he set up a claim to having placed the plough upon 
more acres than any other man in all America." Having 
brought his family and a retinue of slaves and other 
servants, numbering fifteen.^ he built Otsego Hall, a great 
rectangular stone house with castellated roof and gothic 
windows,* surrounded by box hedges and wide lawns 
trimmed precisely by black gardeners, far surpassing any 
other home in the old west.'' This was the citadel of Fed- 
alism and the council-place of party methods for the Otsego 
country, for not only did Judge Cooper serve nine 
years as first judge of the county and two terms in Con- 
gress,° but he rode far and wide in the cause of Jay and 
later Aaron Burr, always preaching the old and musty 

' I'nlike all others mentioned in this chapter he came from New 
Jersey rather than New York city and the near-by counties, but he 
represents the same trend in all particulars. 

'See quotations from letters in F. \V. Halsey, op. cit., pp. 359, .3^, <^tc. 

'S. M. Shaw, History of Cooperstown (Cooperstown, 1886) and 
Halsey, op. cit. p. 358. 

*This was built in 1799, taking the place of the so-called manor- 
house whicli was the original home. Views of its exterior and in- 
terior may be seen in the volume of the Cooperstown Centennial 
(Cooperstown, 1908), and Halsey, p. 362, and especially in Mary E. 
Philips' copiously illustrated James Fenimore Cooper (N. Y., 1913)- 
The grounds are now the village park. 

»S. T. Livermore, History of Cooperstown (Albany, 1862), pp. 
45-46. The Hall was built on the lines of the Van Rensselaer manor- 
house, where Cooper was a frequent visitor, but seems to have sur- 
])assed its model, Philips, op. cit., p. 8. 

«.V. F. Civil List, 1881, pp. 359- 446. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



i37 



doctrine that government had better be left to gentlenien. 
and that simple folk should vote as they were told. 

The influence of this squirearchy was thus socially con- 
servative, looking backward to the Tory models across the 
sea ; and in no particular, perhaps, was its expression more 
clear and unmistakeable than in its cherishment and pat- 
ronage of " the Episcopal mode of worship, so friendly ttjr 
Government, so hostile to Jacobinism." ^ Let us turn again 
to the Federalist families we have cited as examples. The 
Parishes, as true English gentlemen, laid out a plot for the 
churchyard and a little glebe, and were the principal con- 
tributors to an edifice and an endowment." The Ogdens, 
long vestrymen of Trinity, set up a modest church in the 
hamlet by their island.^ The Clarksons, who in Ne\v York 
city had likewise worshipped there for generations, erected 
near their homes another Trinity, now beautified by rich 
memorials of the family.^ The Harisons, descended from 
the comptroller of the mother parish, built another of thai 
name at Morley."' The year that young Cornelius Low 
arrived in Lowville, another Trinity was l3egun.*^ The 
LeRoys, far to the westward, endowed their St. Mark's 
with land and money.'' while their neighbor, Colonel Troup. 

* Robert Troup to Rufus King, King Correspondence, vol. v, p. 37. 
^ Curtis, St. Lawren£e County, p. 383. 

•'' M. Dix, The Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New York 
(N. Y., 1905), vol. iii, p. 30, extracts from the parish minutes where- 
in aid is promised for its support. The Ogdens were among the foun- 
ders of the Protestant Episcopal Societj- for Promoting Religion and 
Learning in the State of New York, see Appleton, loc. c'U. 

* Curtis, op. cit., part ii, p. 34. They also built and jiatronized churches 
in near-by towns. 

^ M. Dix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 429; Curtis, p. 459. 

^F. B. Hough, History of Letvis County, pp. 137, 170. The date is 

i8ia 

' F. W. Beers, Gazetteer and Biographical Record of Genesee County, 
pp. 480, 491. 



{38 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

was a steadfast champion of Episcopal tradition and among 
the founders of Geneva College (later Hobart) where its 
ministers were to be trained/ In Otsego County the two 
Federalist leaders were likewise the supporters of the 
church. Judge Cooper was chiefly instrumental in building- 
up its influence in the town that bears his name and sent his 
son, the future novelist, to the old Tory rector of St. Peter's 
in Albany for a schooling that no one nearer was thought 
fit to give." General Morris, as a zealous Anglican built a 
church in 1801 to make provision for his parish in the town 
that bore his name, continuing its leading patron ; and his 
children at the home, some distance from the village, set 
up a memorial chapel." There is no intention here to prove 
the old English church a school of Federalism, yet that cast 
of thought which for three hundred years had made a point 
of holding " it to be the duty of all men who are professors 
of the Gospel to give respectful obedience to the Civil 
Authorities, regularly and legitimately constituted " * could 
not have been hospitable to the doctrines of the Constitution 
of 1 82 1. It is safe to suppose that not many Jacobinical 
Democrats were confirmed as Bishop Hobart made his 
round of visits. '"^ 

All the families we have instanced were important in the 
I>arty of the state; among the Federalist nominations for 
the electors of 18 16, for example, are found the names of 
Jacob Morris, William North, Matthew Clarkson and 

* M. Dix, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 197 ; see also many letters from Troup 
to Rufus King on church matters, King Correspondence. 

2 S. T. Livermore, History of Cooperstown, p. 51; T. R. Lounsbury, 
Life of James Fenmiore Cooper (Boston, 1882), p. 6; and letter from 
the Reverend Ralph Birdsall of Cooperstown, N. Y. to the author. 

'H. Child, Gazetteer of Otsego County, pp. 111-113. 

* Articles of Religion, XXXVII, Book of Common Prayer. 

* See M. Dix, op. cit., Hobart Correspondence in vols, iii and iv, for 
the extent and numbers of these visits. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



139 



Gouverneur Ogden/ At home this landed " quality " stocxi 
as reminiscent Catos praising, in a day of innovation, the 
older stable English way. Slowly but surely this influence 
of conservatism was distributed through the counties of the 
state, contributing somewhat, it cannot be doubted, to check 
the spirit of democracy," and affording support respectable 
in character if not great in its extent, to the party that 
traced its evolution under John Ouincy Adams. Henry Clay 
and William Henry Seward. 

A hundred years ago throughout the countryside men 
were still described as Gentlemen and Yeomen ; ' the social 
and political prestige of landed property, of the " proud, 
polished, and powerful aristocracy deep-rooted in the soil," * 
was a familiar fact to be decently acknowledged as a bene- 
ficent provision for the welfare of the race. Judge Cooper's 
son, the famous novelist and the heir of this prestige, in the 
preface to The Chainbearer, his story of the anti-rent dis- 
turbance, adverted to the dangers that must follow in the 
train of any change: 

The column of society must have its capital as well as its 
base. It is only perfect while each part is entire, and dis- 

'A^. Y. Senate Journal, 1816-1817, p. 16. 

' Of course their kind of settlement was but partially similar to the 
Hudson River manors. Lands were sold for profit in fee simple, in- 
stead of held in lease with annoying dues. Hence settlement wa.s 
encouraged, not retarded, by the presence of these proprietors, since 
they offered opportunities that self-respecting Yankees could embrace 
without disgrace. Cf. F. J. Turner, The Old West (Madison, 1909). 
pp. 195-198, and his authorities, for a discussion of the effect of feudal 
tenures and the exploitation of the settlers. 

' See, for example, the certificate of admission to the bar of Dominick 
I. Blake, the friend of Hamilton (see signatures on Hamilton's will, 
Hamilton, Works, Lodge edition, vol. viii, p. 634), preserved in the 
Emmett Collection in the New York Public Library, Document 
11310; a deed, ibid., Document 11337, and numerous deeds in the 
Schuyler Mss., Land papers. 

* Theodore Roosevelt, Gouverneur Morris (Boston, 1891), p. 14. 



I40 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



charges its proper duty. In New York the great landholders 
long have, and do still, in a social sense, occupy the place of this 
capital. On the supposition that this capital is broken, and 
hurled to the ground, of what material will be the capital that 
mttst be pushed into its place ! We know of none half so likely 
to succeed, as the country extortioner and the country usurer ! 
We would caution those who now raise the cry of feudality and 
aristocracy, to have a care of what they are about. In lieu of 
King Log, they may be devoured by King Stork.^ 

But the influence extolled, and often properly enough, as 
so kindly and paternal, might not be exerted with the finest 
scruple and could be bent to purposes sinister indeed. As to 
how these great Federalist landlords could play an ugly pan 
in politics if so disposed, no better example could be found 
than in the case of Judge William Cooper. 

In 1792 an Anti-Federalist legislature saw fit to notice 
some of his irregularities, in the conduct of late elections in 
his county, with a resolution for impeachment.- Scores of 
addresses and petitions were received, and the major portion 
of the time of the assembly for a weary month exhausted in 
the examination of the witnesses. Although no sufficient 
evidence was found to warrant his removal as an official, 
enough was learned to leave no doubt as to what might be 
accomplished by a great landlord with tenants in arrears. 
One testified that the judge " had been round to the people 
and told them that tliey owed him, and that unless they 
voted for Mr. Jay, he would ruin them." " Judge Cooper 
then said to me," testified another, " ' what, then, young 
man, you will not vote as I would have you — you are a 

* J. Fenimore Cooper, The Chainbearer (N. Y., 1846), pp. viii-ix. 

'N. Y. Assembly Journal, 1792-1793, pp. 140, 141, 145, 146, 149-1^2, 
^55, 156, 170, 184, 186, 204, 206, 240, 244-246 (citations are given in 
full as the Journal is not indexed). The Federalists by a virtually 
solid vote did what they could to prevent the inquiry, but without avail, 
ibid., p. 150. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



141 



fool, young man, for you cannot know liow to vote as well 
as I can direct you, for 1 am in public office." " He was a 
testy and choleric gentleman easily wrought into passion, 
and his debtors, knowing that he took his pohtics as a se- 
rious business, were constrained to form opinions on his 
model. It was thought that seven hundred votes were 
brougiit into the Federalist column by this squire's wdl- 
supported threats/ 

Of course not every landlord took these high-hande<l 
means. In the campaign for the election of governor in 
1801. some over-zealous friends of the Patroon, who led 
the forces of the Federalists, gave out that those of the 
tenantry of Rensselaerswyck who owed for rent, of which 
there were probably thousands, would be prosecuted if they 
failed to cast their ballots for the manor-lord. Credulity 
was nothing strained by this report, but Steplien V^an 
Rensselaer won wide praise for generosity by puWishing 
assurance that no such proscription Wcis intended. " After 
such a noble and magnanimous declaration." wrote Judge 
Hammond, who w-as much impressed. " I am not at all 
surprised that in the county of .Vlbany the patroon received 
two thousand one hundred and thirty-eight votes, while 
Ga\^ Clinton received but seven hundred and fifty-five." " 

1 N. Y. Assembly Journal, 1792-I7g2, pp. 186-187, 189, 191, 193. Judge 
Cooper's partisan activities were not estopped by this publicity. We 
later hear complaints of his having gerrymandered Otsego County, 
J. D. Hammond to Martin Van Buren, January 23, 1816, Van Buren Mss. 

^J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, pp. 161-162. in the cam- 
paign of 1813 when Van Rennselaer ran for governor, a letter was 
raked out of some private file, which had been written twenty years 
before during the campaign of 1793. The Federal A". Y. Commercial 
Advertiser, April 23, 1813, quoted the Albany Register as follows: 
" It purported to offer to such of his tenants as were his ' real friends,' 
the remission of his 'quarter sale* privilege or right; and will any- 
one deny that he had not the right of doing what he pleased with his 
property? And will anyone have the hardihood to censure a landlord 
for a measure calculated to ameliorate and improve the condition, and 
promote the happiness of his tenants ? " 



142 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



At any rate, whether from admiration, fear or gratitude, the 
tenants of the Van Rensselaers had uniformly been ac- 
customed to select the proprietor, some member of the 
family, or some designated friend, to represent them in the 
legislature/ and for more than half of the first forty years 
of the republic a Van Rensselaer sat in Congress as the 
member for the district of the upper Hudson.* Such was 
this family influence that in 1821 Judge Van Ness could 
write to General Solomon Van Rensselaer: 

I saw the Chancellor [James Kent] yesterday and had a long 
talk with him on the subject of the Convention. I am author- 
ized in saying that if you think proper to nominate him as one 
of your candidates, he will not decline. We all here think he 
ought to be in the convention and I hope you will send him if 
you can.'' 

The influence of the land-holders, however, did not 
operate alone in the fear or loyalty of tenants. Limitations 
on the suffrage in America, as but a hasty view makes 
clear,* have been removed with much delay and hesitation; 

■ D. D. Barnard, Discourse on the Life and Services of Stephen Van 
Rensselaer, with an Historical Sketch of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck, 
pamphlet (Albany, 1839), p. 68. Mr. Barnard speaks especially of 
the colonial period, but the practice was continued. The ;V. F. Ciz-^il 
List, 1889, p. 742, has nearly a column of the names of offices held 
by the Van Rensselaers. 

'"It is mentioned as illustrating the influence formerly exercised 
by the Dutch landed proprietors that during the first forty years 
following the organization of the federal government under the 
Constitution (from 1789 to 1829) the district embracing Albany was 
represented for twenty-two years by gentlemen bearing the name of 
Van Rensselaer and connected with the family of the Patroon, that is 
to say Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, two years, Kilian K., ten years; 
Solomon and Stephen ten years in the aggregate." Mrs. C. V. R. 
Bonney, A Legacy of Historical Gleanings, vol. i, p. 393. 

3 W. W. Van Ness to Gen. Solomon Van Rensselaer, May 16, 1821 ; 
Mrs. Bonney, op. £it., vol. i, p. 367. 

*C. A. Beard, American Politics and Government (N. Y., 1912),. 
pp. 8-1 1. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



143 



that the holding of real property was indispensable in 
making a wise citizen was generally believed throughout our 
thirteen colonies/ When the suggestion of equaliiy of 
rights that followed from the Declaration of Independence 
expressed itself in new demands for the extension of the 
suffrage, the conservatives, the Federalists, made firm 
remonstrance. Gouverneur Morris speaking in the conven- 
tion of 1787 warned his colleagues that any innovation her>i 
was fraught with peril. " Give the votes to the people who 
have no property," said he, " and they will sell them to the 
rich who will be able to buy them." ^ Apparently as long as 
suffrage was restricted to the holders of the land, virtue 
would retain her throne; this was an article of faith with 
those who took their stand against democracy. " It is im- 
possible," said Chancellor Kent, long after,^ " that any 
people can lose their liberties by internal fraud or violence, 
so long as the country is parcelled out among freeholders 
of moderate possessions, and those freeholders have a sure 
and efficient control in the affairs of government." No one 

'A. E. McKinley, The Suffrage Franchise in the Thirteen English 
Colonies in America (U. of Penn., Philadelphia, 1905), passim; see pp. 
208-226 for the discussion of the franchise in colonial New York. 
" In New York City in the elections of 1735, 1761, and 1769, the actual 
voters numbered about eight per cent of the population." This was a 
much larger proportion than in many other colonies, p. 487. That 
in the country districts of New York must have been considerably 
smaller, as the Constitution of 1777 allowed the franchise to all of the 
" freemen " of New York city and Albany (Article VII) among whom 
there were mechanics and others without real property while all 
landless men outside these cities were excluded. 

^ Max Farrand (editor), The Records of the Federal Convention, 
vol. i, p. 545. Several other times he advocated a freehold qualifica- 
tion for the vote for congressmen, ibid., vol. ii, pp. 201, 202, 207, 209. 
See also J. Allen Smith, The Spirit of American Government (N. Y., 
1907), p. 27- 

' Carter, Stone and Gould, Reports of the Proceedings and Debates 
of the Convention of 1821 (Albany, 1821), p. 220. 



144 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

may doubt that both these gentlemen and many others of 
their part}-, spoke from the conviction of their hearts ; no 
doubt they felt that universal suffrage would be the fertile 
cause of all electoral chicanery; yet when the chancellor de- 
livered his memorable defence of the old qualification, ex- 
^^rience had shown that this alone liad not provided 
against human weakness. Landholders in New York state 
while this qualification was in force,^ were no more severely 
upright than their prototypes across the sea. 

The student of the elective franchise as it developed in 
England is familiar with the practice known as '' fagot 
holdings," whereby the wealthy politician, possessed of 
many acres in his county, was wont to cut them into strips, 
more or less exactly equal to the qualifications of a voter, 
and then carefully assign them to his landless neighbors, to 
make them legal and indubitable freemen for the three or 
four days of election only. Such practices, of ancient 
origin, became the subject of considerable legislation as late 
as 1832.- The example of these squires had not been lost. 

1 The Constitution of 1777 provided that the senators, governor and 
lieutenant-governor were to be chosen indirectly by freeholders " pos- 
sessed of freeholds of the value of one hundred pounds, over and 
above all debts charged tlicreon." F. N. Thorpe. T^deral and State 
Constitutions (50th Congress, House Document, No. 357, Washington, 
1909), vol. v. pp. 26.50, 2632, (Articles X and XVII). To vote for 
member of assembly, and hence for congressman, one " shall have 
been a freeholder, possessing a freehold of the value of twenty pounds, 
within the said county, or have rented a tenement of the yearly value 
of forty shillings," and been rated and actually paid taxes to the 
state. Article VII, ibid., p. 2630. The pounds referred to are in the 
-\merican estimation, not PInglish, and hence the sums are to be under- 
stood as two hundred and fifty dollars and fifty dollars respectively, 
see C. Z. Lincoln, Constitut'wual History of New York State, vol. i. 
p. 640. 

-E.g. Act 7 & 8 Wm. Ill, c. 25; lo Anne. c. 23; 2 & 3 Wm. IV, c. 45 
^. 20. The abuse has been defined as " conveyance not intended to give 
anv real interest, made for the purpose of a particular election, and 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



145 



Martin Van Buren has left a reputation for a matchless 
erudition in the devious ways of party management. In 
his younger days he served out a novitiate as a local leader 
of Clintonians/ later his implacable foes, with a success 
that marked no ordinary promise. In his native county of 
Columbia, however, he found one practice in which his 
Federalist rivals, land owners as they were, could easily 
excel. His summary sent to his chief after the election of 
18 10 is worthy of quotation: ■ 

I have once more with shame to inform you that this county 
has giv^en 527 majority for Piatt & about the same for assembly 
& Congress — all the made voters voted for assembly & Con- 
gress — if you will look at the Voters between this year & last 
you will find that there have been rising of 600 votes made 
in the Count)' of which our friends made about one-third — in 
Chatham our friend Dorr after he had made about a Dozzen 
got one of the Judas Breed into his Camp who gave up his 
Deed to the Federalists — this broke us up there — in Claverack 
our friends made more than they did — in this cit>' they made 
more than us — & in the lower town where we had no body to 
make or to be made they played the very devil with us — in 
the single town of Gallatin Robert LeRoy Livingston^ this 

with an understanding that the property should be reconveyed where 
the transaction had served its turn." W. R. Anson, The Law and 
Custom of the Constitittion, Fourth edition (Oxford, 1909), vol. i, 
pp. 106, 127. The Act of 1832, 2 & 3 Wm. IV, c. 45, required that 
property cited in qualification should have been held' a year. 

1 That is from 1807 to 1813 ; E. M. Shepard. .Martin Fan Buren 
(Boston. 1888), pp. 45-59. 

' Martin Van Buren to DeWitt Chnton, April 28. 1810, Clinton Mss. 
If President Van Buren kept a copy of this letter it may not be sur- 
prising that he did not include it among the papers he desired to be 
preserved, cf. Calendar of Van Buren Manuscripts (Washington, 1910). 

•^The Livingstons, of course, as a family had left the Federalists 
in 1790. " It is, however, to be remarked, that some of the Living- 
stons who resided in Columbia County, did not change with the 
chancellor, but continued their adherence to the federal party." J. D. 



146 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

morning admitted to me that he had made 190 — Elisha 
WilHams ^ was there during the whole election to fill up the 
Deeds — So that upon the whole we have reason to felicitate 
ourselves it is no worse. . . . [Here follows a sentence difficult 
to decipher claiming, apparently, that the Fedalists had sent in 
eight hundred deeds] ... I am sorry for Columbia but have 
done all I could — King George has issued too many pattents 
for us. If some friends had laid off their scruples earlier we 
would have reduced their majority to about 250 which is all 
they are honestly entitled to. 

King George having " issued too many pattents " to the 
aristocracy, the Federalists could make two fagot voters 
where their humbler rivals could make one. Republican 
solicitude at their success — for the practice was probably 
well known in more counties than this one * — was no doubt 
a motive in carrying through a law at the next session of 
the legislature, entitled " An Act to prevent Frauds and Per- 
juries at Elections," etc.^ To discourage this kind of 
manufacture it specified that anyone offering to vote for 
governor, lieutenant-governor or senator, who fell under 
the suspicion of the inspector at the polls, must swear that 
he was 

possessed of a freehold in my own right, (or in the right of 
my wife, as the case may be) of the value of two hundred and 
fifty dollars, within the state, over and above all debts charged 
thereon, and that I have not become such freeholder fraudu- 

Hammond, Political History, vol. i, p. 107. -Robert LeRoy Livingston 
was one of these, Albany Gazette, May 2, 1808; he served as congress- 
man from 1809 to 1813, see A''. Y. Civil List, 1889, p. 603. 

' See supra, ch. ii. 

~ For two examples of how the Republicans had themselves used this 
device in the campaign of 1801, see Barrett. Old Merchants of New 
York, vol. i, p. 281, and E. Vale Blake, The History of the Tammany 
Society (N. Y., 1901), pp. SO-5i- 

^Laws of the State of New York, Thirty- fourth Session (i8n), p. 287. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES j^y 

lently, for the purpose of giving my vote at this election, nor 
upon any trust or understanding, express or implied, to recon- 
vey such free-hold during or after election . , . and further, 
that I will true answers make to any interrogatories which 
shall be put to me by inspectors of election, touching the 
situation and boundaries of such freehold, from whom and by 
what conveyance I derive title to the same. 

But it was in the voting for the members of assembly (and 
by that same test for Congress), where the property quali- 
fication was much lower, that most trouble was expected. 
Here the provision was still more exacting ; the voter must 
take oath that " I am and have been for six months next 
and immediately preceding the election, a freeholder, and 
am possessed ... of the value of fifty dollars." It was 
thought unlikely that any landholder would give up six 
months' rental that the Federalist vote of his district might 
be enlarged. 

For it was the Federalists who feared the operation of 
the law; theirs they recognized to be the loss if voters were 
no longer to be " made." When the proposition came be- 
fore the senate, Judge Piatt, aware how hopeless would be 
any opposition to the bill against the immovable Republican 
majority, catching at what straws he could, moved a pro- 
viso " that it should not take effect until after the next elec- 
tion." ^ Possibly in this way one year, at least, might be 
salvaged. But the majority must have smiled at such a 
hope ; the proviso was supported by eight senators, of whom 
all but one were Federalists.^ When the act was passed the 
seven who stood fast against it were Hall, Hopkins, Paris, 
Phelps, Piatt. Stearns and Williams, all men of the old 
party who had been elected in the great revolt of 1808 

* A^ Y. Senate Journal, 181 1, p. 163. 

^ Ibid., p. 164. This minority constituted nearly one-third of the 
members present 



148 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

and 1809.' In the assembly there was a similar align- 
ment." The landholding Federalists had done what they 
could to save a useful practice, but the Zeitgeist had gone 
on.^ 

The Federalists as landlords found their largest common 
interest in the projects for the inland waterways which 
would enhance the value of their property throughout the 
state. Intelligent observers had early seen great possibili- 
ties. Washington had written in the first year after the 
Revolution : 

I then traversed the country to the head of the eastern 
branch of the Susquehanna, and viewed the Lake Otsego, and 
the portage between that lake and the Mohawk River at Cana- 
joharie. Prompted by these actual observations, I could not 
help taking a more contemplative and extensive view of the 
vast inland navigation of the United States . . . [and] the 
goodness of that Providence, which has dealt her favors to 
us with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may have 
wisdom enough to improve them.* 

^J. S. Jenkins, History of Politkal Parties in New York State, pp. 
Y26, 131-133. Robert Williams had been chosen as a Republican, but 
after his election as a member of the Council of Appointment he had 
uniformly acted with the Federalists, thus giving them a majority, and 
was henceforth called an apostate by his former party, Jenkins, pp. 
121. 133. Williams, unlike the others, had been elected in 1807. For 
party affiliations see also the A . >'. Senate Journal, 181 1, p. 196. 
'N. Y. Assembly Journal, 181 1, pp. 315. 360. 

^It is probable that the practice did not entirely disappear, until 
the extension of the suffrage in 1821. " Tammany [in 1820] charged 
that in the construction of the Erie Canal, land had been cut up in 
slips to make additional voters for Clinton and cited the county of 
Genessee [sic], which, though polling but 750 freehold votes in 1815, 
gave nearly 5,000 votes in this election." Gustavus Myers, The History 
of Tammany Hall, p. 66, note; Myers cites no authority for this 
statement. 

*G. Washington to the Chevallier de Chastellux, 12 October, 1783. 
Works (Ford edition), vol. x, p. 325. See also his letter of the same 
late to Lafavette, loc. cit. Elkanah Watson, who claimed to be the 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



149 



But for the statesmen or the capitalists who had witnessed 
only the first steps in our national development, nothing 
was harder than to take a " contemplative and extensive 
view " of the improvement of other people's land at the 
general cost to taxpayers. Perhaps even the Father of his 
Country found this enthusiasm easier when he recalled his 
property between the ranges of the Alleghenies/ Though 
a liberal interpretation of constitutions, state and national 
was needful to the policy of internal improvement by 
appropriation from the public chest, Federalists, as such, 
were not of necessity committed to these schemes. It was 
not until New England saw her destiny in manufactures, 
and recognized the need of quicker transportation for the 
bales of raw and finished goods carried back and forth to pay 
her dividends, not until the presidential speeches of John, 
Quincy Adams, that the old Federalists of Boston voted 
for canals and turnpikes in the regions far beyond the fall 
line. In 1817, in Congress, when Calhoun's persuasive 
prophecies almost carried through the principle in its most 
liberal application, the Federalists from Massachustts voted 
no." Cyrus King, the brother of the senator from New 
York, voiced their protest in a short and simple phrase: 
" The post roads of New England are now good ... If 
they are not so elsewhere let those concerned make them 
so." ^ And throughout the first and second decades of the 
century this was the attitude, in general, of the coastal cities 
toward the clamorous frontier.* 

originator of the plan of a long western canal, says it was a con- 
versation with Washington which tended to " kindle a flame in his 
mind " and start his explorations, E. Watson, History of Canals in 
New York State (Albany, 1820), p. 9. 

* See his Will, Works (Ford edition), vol. xiv, p. 283, and A. B. 
Hulbert, Washington and the West (N. Y., 1905). 

2 Annals of Congress, 1817-1818, pp. 230, 398, 922, 1062. ' Ibid., p. 914- 

* Professor F. J. Turner has prepared maps (not yet published) 
showing how the favorable vote on such propositions steadily increases 
westward from the coast. 



I^O ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

On the other hand the Federalists of New York city and 
the Hudson River counties seemed more anxious for the 
progress of appropriations at Albany or Washington than 
were the followers of JefTerson, a fact of no small interest in 
accounting for their later coalition with the Clinton forces. 
They too engaged their fortunes on the sea, but not ex- 
clusively; unlike their fellow partisans of Boston they had 
lands to settle and develop. It was Gouverneur Morris in 
the tent of General Schuyler, one evening in the long cam- 
paign of Saratoga, who pictured the not distant day when 
connection would be made between the Hudson and those 
"great western seas." ^ Philip Schuyler, shrewd, enter- 
prising, public-spirited, was not a man to lose this vision ; 
he became the Father of Canals in New York state," though 
to Morris goes the credit for the project of the Grand Canal 
itself. While on his visit to England in 1761 Schuyler had 
seen the great canals that Brindley had but lately finished, 
and had been impressed with what such a work might mean 
connecting the Hudson near his home with Lake Cham- 
plain.^ Learning of Elkanah Watson's plan of a canal 
between Lake Ontario and the Mohawk, in 1791,* he be- 

' Jared Sparks, Life etc. of Gouverneur Morris, vol. i, pp. 495-504. 

- In the New York Public Library there are preserved nearly a 
thousand pieces of his manuscript papers dealing with canals. General 
Schuyler's importance as a landholder needs hardly to be mentioned. 
There are preserved eleven boxes of his land papers, beside several 
volumes and many extra items. See also J. C. Hamilton to A. C. 
Flagg, July 26, 1826, Flagg Mss. (Misc. Papers). 

" B. J. Lossing, The Life and Times of Major General Philip 
Schuyler, vol. i, pp. 40, 180; vol. ii, pp. 464-471. On his return he 
prevailed upon the governor Sir Henry Moore " to look into the matter 
of rendering the Mohawk River navigable by the construction of such 
canals as might be necessary to overcome the rapids at the Little Falls 
and elsewhere." H. W. Hill, " Waterways and Canals in New York 
State," Buffalo Historical Society Collections, vol. xii, p. 37. 

* See E. Watson, op. cit. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 151 

came the chief patron of internal improvements in New 
York. His efforts in the legislature produced " An act for 
establishing and opening lock navigation within the State," ^ 
and he organized two companies to build canals to Ontario 
and Champlain, presiding over both." 

Capital to sustain such large enterprises would naturally 
be sought within the " party of merchants and commercial 
men," ^ but these might well have been as skeptical as the 
merchants in New England, had it not been for the landed 
interests of themselves, their relatives and friends. Certainly 
these moneyed men of New York City did not hesitate. A 
partial list recording eighteen holders of the stock of these 
two companies is preserved with General Schuyler's papers.* 
Besides the Holland bankers ° we find mostly names of Fed- 
eralist landholders, or their close associates. Robert Troup 
and Richard Harison lead with ten shares each. LeRoy 

^ Laws of 1792, ch. xl; see also David Hosack, Memoir of DeWitt 
Clinton (N, Y., 1829), Appendix S. The bill was managed in the 
assembly by John Williams, a Federalist from Washington County. 
See Elkanah Watson, History of Canals in New York State and 
"Warren" (James Cheetham) An Antidote to John Wood's Poison, 
pamphlet, (N. Y., 1802), p. 47, and C. H. Hunt, Life of Edward 
Livingston (N. Y., 1863), p. 69. 

^The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company and the Northern 
Inland Lock Navigation Company. The stockholders seem to have 
been almost identical, see Schuyler Mss., "Canals" box i. Schuyler 
proposed the route actually followed by the Champlain Canal, H. W. 
Hill, op. cit., p. 131. The report of 1792 of the " Committee to Explore 
the Western Waters . . . f or . . . Inland Navigation," is reprinted in the 
Documentary History of New York (Albany, 1850), vol. iii, pp. 659-670. 
^Levi Beardsley, Reminiscences (N. Y., 1852), pp. 118-119. 
* " List of Stockholders in the Western Inland Lock Navigation 
Company who have made payment agreeable to the requisition of the 
board of the nth of April, 1793; " the same for the Northern Company 
shows but two variations in names. Schuyler Mss. " Canal Papers." 

*0f these there were four firms mentioned, naturally interestf^d in 
the western lands by reason of the Holland Purchase. See Journal 
of the Assembly of N. Y., 1792-1793, p. 22. 



1^2 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

and Bayard/ and Rufus King - come next with five. Then 
John Lawrence, King's successor in the Senate, who was 
among the most extensive landlords,^ and Gilbert Aspin- 
wall,'* the wealthy merchant whose relatives held land.^ 
Other names, like those of William Inman who owned a 
hundred thousand acres in the north ® and Frederick Scriba 
whose vast holdings stretched along the shores of Lake 
Ontario," piece out the list; and as one turns over the 
voluminous correspondence, many Federalists of the same 
kind are mentioned as stockholders — General Abraham Ten 
Broeck,^ Jonas Piatt. "* Colonel J. Van Schoonhoven,^" 
Goldsborough Banyar (John Jay's son-in-law)," and 

' They later donated 2,500 acres for the Erie Canal, and Robert 
Troup for Sir William Pulteney made also a large grant, S. H. Sweet, 
' Documentary Sketch of New York Canals," in Annual Report of 
the State Engineer, N. Y. Assembly Documents, 1863, vol. i, p. 99. 

^King became quite active, dispensing much of the company's money 
and planning with the engineers, see Schuyler to Wni. Weston, Febru- 
ary II, 1793, and R. King to Schuyler, February 17, 1793. Schuyler Mss. 

^Land Papers, pp. 503, 506, 551, 569, 658, 668, 796, etc., etc. 

*A. A. Aspinwall, The Aspinwall Genealogy (Rutland, 1901 [?]), 
p. 72. 

^Land Papers, p. 689. 

^Documentary History of New York, vol. iii, p. 647. 

'J. C. Churchill, History of Oszvego County, see account of the 
town of Scriba, etc. 

*To Schuyler, June 11, 1793; Schuyler Mss. He was the Federal 
candidate for mayor of Albany in 1790, J. D. Hammond, Political 
History, vol. i, p. 48. 

"To Major de Zeug, May 21, 1793, Schuyler Mss. 

10 B. Bleecker to Schuyler, May 17, i793- Schuyler Mss. ; J. A. Roberts. 
New York in the Revolution (Albany, 1898), p. 120; Jenkins, Political 
Parties, pp. 6z, 84, 130, etc. 

"B. Bleecker to Schuyler, January i, 1793, Schuyler Mss.; W. W. 
Spooner, Historic Families of America, vol. iii, pp. 152, 163. For the 
lands held by Banyar, see Land Papers, pp. 731, 736, 970, ^017, etc. 
He later turned RepubHcan. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



153 



Dominick Lynch, the founder of Rome/ most of them large 
proprietors of land. 

In the movement for the Grand Canal the initial step was 
taken by Gouverneur Morris.- In 1803 his plan recounted 
to scientists and engineers produced a deep impression,'' 
and began an enterprise which was later aided by the 
Clintons. That he held great tracts along the Genesee, 
and sought to interest others in their purchase, must 
have been a factor in his propaganda.* His name 
came first among the original canal commissioners of 
1810,^ of whose report he was the author,® and it was 
Morris who with Clinton went to Washington in a vain 
attempt to get a federal grant. ^ But there were other lead- 
ing Federalists who made common cause with him and 
Schuyler. Thomas R. Gold '^ had brought in the resolution 

*To Schuyler, July 24, 1792, Schuyler Mss.; Walter Barrttt, Old 
Merchants of New York, vol. i, p. 171. Diary of Philip Hone, vol. i. 
pp. 5, 18, 35, e!tc. Samuel Jones was also a stockholder, Joites to 
Schuyler, July 14, 1792. 

^ His enthusiastic letter to John Parish, December 20, 1800, is quoted 
in part by D. Hosack, Memoir of DelVitt Clinton, p. 252, et seq. 

'By i&)3 he was also projecting a shorter canal "from the head 
of the Onondaga River and carried on the level as far east as it will 
go, and, if possible, into the Mohawk River; then, in a direct course as 
circumstances will permit to Hudson's River, making locks as the 
descent may require." Diary and Letters, vol. ii, p. 390. Clinton him- 
self in a letter in his papers (no date) gives Morris credit for 
originating the scheme, Hosack, p. 301, and A. B. Hulburt, Historic 
Highways (Cleveland, 1904), vol. xiv, ch. ii. 

* F. W. Halsey, The Old New York Frontier, p. 370, and Sparks. 
Life etc. of Gouverneur Morris (To Jefferson, February 26, 1791, and 
December 21, 1792), vol. ii, pp. 121, 249. 

3 N. Y. Civil List, 1889, p. 224. 

* H. W. Hill, " Waterways and Canals," pp. 72-73. 
' Morris, Diary and Letters, vol. ii, p. 535. 

*See Robert Troup to Rufus King, April 11, 1807, King Correspond- 
ence; F. A. Bloodgood to John Tayler, April 5, 1804, Tayler Mss.; 
and supra, ch. ii. 



1^4 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

of 1808 looking toward a full survey ^ and Jonas Piatt 
revived the subject in the senate during his campaign as 
candidate for governor in 1810," while the Patroon and 
Abraham Van Vechten carried through the measure in the 
assembly.^ Of the first canal commissioners four out of 
eight were Federalists and three Clintonians.* Apparently 
the interest in such improvement, connected as it was at first 
with land values, had become a settled party policy. 

When the war was over, at a great New York mass 
meeting that sought again to forward the canal scheme, 
William Bayard, the great Federalist proprietor, was the 
chairman.'^ J. R. Van Rensselaer, the party leader from 
Columbia County, was the most active lobbyist at Albany ^ 
for the canal, and sought the contract for its construction 
at $10,000,000.'^ Robert Troup was the most effective 
propagandist in the west,^ and Cadwallader D. Colden 
formed opinion in its favor in New York city, where sup- 
port was sadly needed.^ In the assembly Judge Pendleton 

^N. Y. Assembly Journal, 1808, p. 297. 

*A^. Y. Senate Journal, 1810, p. 99. "Be assured Sir, it will ever 
be to me a subject of just pride, as well as the most pleasing reflections, 
that I had the honor of cooperating with You in initiating and pro- 
moting our great system of internal navigation." Jones Piatt to DeWitt 
Clinton, Oct. 4, 1823. See also Thomas Eddy to Clinton, Oct. 4, 1823, 
DeWitt Clinton Mss. 

^N. E. Whitford, History of the Canal System of the State of New 
York, N. Y. Assembly Documents, 1906, vol. v, pp. 62-63. 

■*Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, DeWitt Clinton, Simeon 
DeWitt, William North, Thomas Eddy and Peter B. Porter. Only the 
last came to be known as a Tammany man, and he, in the 'thirties, 
became a Whig. See Follett Papers. 

^ See petition in New York Canal Laws, vol. ii, p. 122. 

« N. E. Whitford, op. cit., p. 81. 

'J. R. Van Rensselaer to DeWitt Clinton, March 11, 1817, Clinton Mss. 

'*Hosack, op. cit., p. 423; also see letters to DeWitt Clinton, Feb. 25, 
Dec 3, 5, 9, and Jan. 13, 1819, Clinton Mss. 

^Encyclopedia Britannica, nth edition, under Colden. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 155 

(who had been Hamilton's second in the duel with Aaron 
Burr), William A. Duer, Abraham Van Vechten, T. J. 
Oakley, James Emott and especially Elisha Williams were 
leaders in support of the measure, while Lucas Elmendorf 
and P. R. Livingston, two of the foremost Democrats, led 
the opposition/ In the senate George Tibbits " was its 
champion, and it was he who devised the plan adopted by 
the state to pay for the canal.^ When the vote of 1816 was 
recorded, said a broadside issued to the voters of the west, 
it was observed that but two Federalists had voted againsL 
the project, which received a treatment so unkind from their 
opponents. " The Federalists as a body have adhered closely 
to our interests." * In 18 17 no member of the party in the 
senate voted nay. No eleventh-hour repentance of the 

' N. E. Whitford, op. cit., pp. 83, 93, 94. 

- A Federalist from Rensselaer, see Jenkins, Political Parties, p. 171. 

^D. C. Sowers, Financial History of New York State (N. Y., 1914), 
p. 62. 

' The Grand Canal Defeated by a Democratic Senate (in the collection 
of the New York Public Library). " The first step towards its destruc- 
tion was a motion by Mr. Van Buren to strike out a large portion of 
the Bill which the House had passed — and the second was to form 
a new one, which leaves the business in a worse condition than if it 
had never been taken up. 

" Will the electors support men who are thus regardless of their most 
important interests? It appears that but 2 federal senators voted in 
favor of Mr. Van Buren's motion to strike out the bill from the 
Assembly. The federalists as a body have adhered closely to our 
interests. To the permanent interests of the Western District especially, 
while the Senators from this part of the state have generally voted 
against them. Let us turn our attention to a different set of men." 
Van Buren later came to the support of a measure which proved so 
popular, and made a speech in its favor at the following session. He 
even for a time considered internal improvements at national expense, 
see C. E. Dudley to Van Buren, Dec. 23, 1821 and T. C. Hamilton to 
Van Buren, Dec. 21, 1826, Van Buren Mss. 

5 A^. Y. Senate Journal, 1816-1817, cf. votes on presidential electors 
and on the bill, pp. 16, 356. The bill when passed was nearly vetoed 



156 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Tammany leaders could erase this memory/ So the Feder- 
alists, whose interest in canals had followed their concern it) 
lands, won the gratitude of the western section, which, in 
contrast to its former practice,^ became a stronghold of the 
opposition to the Democratic party. 

When other canals were projected it was to be expectefl 
that land-owning Federalists would be active in support. It 
was natural that Nicholas Low^ and Henry Remsen (once 
John Jay's private secretary) ■* should desire their great 
properties improved, when the Black River Canal was 
proposed in Clinton's administration, and that many 
wealthy meml^ers of the party in the city of New York 
should ask for the connection between Lake Champlain and 
the St. Lawrence, which the governor had so warmly ad- 
vocated.- In 1824 a petition was presented in the interest 

in the Council of Revision. The story of how Chancellor Kent flouted 
the advice of Vice President Tompkins, in voting for the bill, is to 
be found in William Kent, Memoirs of Chancellor Kent (Boston, 1898), 
pp. 168-170. 

'The Tammany party " ridiculing as a ruinous and visionary project, 
the efforts which have been made for connecting our Atlantic seaboard 
with our great inland seas, — and when driven from their hold, by the 
torrent of public opinion, affecting to be all at once the great patrons of 
the undertaking, and seizing into their own hands its officers and its 
patronage." Broadside, Address to the Electors of Oneida and Oswego 
(signed Bill Smith, chairman, 20th March 1821) in the New York 
Public Library; C. G. Haines to De Witt Clinton, Sept. 10, 1819, 
Clinton Mss., and letters in 1821, Childs Mss. 

^ See supra, ch. iii. 

*Levi Beardsley, Reminiscences, p. 285. 

* Henry Remsen had purchased heavily in the lower Adirondack region, 
see Land Papers, pp. 651, 671, 725, 731, 743, 748, etc., D. E. Wager, 
History of Oneida County, p. 119, and M. A. Hamm, Famous Families 
of New York, vol. ii, p. 78. 

^C. Z. Lincoln, Messages from the Governors (Albany, 1909), vol. 
iii, pp. 68, 69. See also A'. F. Canal Laws, vol. ii, p. 228, and H. W. 
Hill, op. cit., p. 146. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 



157 



of this latter enterprise by certain citizens of the city.' 
Among its less than two score names there are those of 
many FederaHsts that can thus be easily explained. Richard 
Harison,' Hennan LeRoy,'^ Daniel McCorniick,* Thomas 
Morris,'"' Garret Van Home/ Hezekiah B. Pierpont/ R. M. 
Lawrence,'* Matthew, Thomas S. and Levinus Clarkson,^ 
Philip Brasher,^" Frederick Depeyster/' LeRoy, Bayard and 
Co.,^" Charles McEvers,'" Elisha Tibbits,'* Henry Remsen 
and Nicholas Low. There were others who though not own- 
ing land in this vicinity were glad tO' give approval to the 
principle; for example Nicholas Fish,^^ who at one time 
owned nearly fifty thousand acres in Broome County and 
much more beside, and Cornelius Ray,^® a proprietor of 
several square miles in Chenango. This list may help ex- 
plain how it was that Federalists began a policy of large 
expenditure for such improvement in New York. 

' A copy is preserved among the Miscellaneous Papers of the Flagg 
Mss. 

* See supra, ch. i. 

* His family held laiul in St. Lawrence County, see G. Curtis. St. 
Lawrence County, part ii, p. 34. 

* Land Papers, e. g., p. 1008. 
' Ibid., p. 658. 

•^ Curtis, op. fit., p. 462. 

' F. B. Hough, St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, pp. 713-714. 

*^ A relative of Senator John Lawrence. 

"Curtis, part ii, p. 34. 

1" Thurlow Weed, Autobiography, etc., vol. i. pp. 394. 401. 

11 J. H. French, Gazetteer of New York, p. 576; W. A. Duer. 
Reminiscences, p. 37. 

"* Hough, op. cit., p. 429. 

'' Associated with LeRoy, Bayard and Co. 

"He and his family held land in this section, see J. H. French, 
Gazetteer, p. 578 and Land Papers, p. 921. 

^^Land Papers, pp. 737, 810. 

^* Ibid., pp. 714. 720. 



158 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

In this brief survey we have sought to trace the influence 
and counter-influence of the frontier and Federahsm in New 
York state. We have seen the venture of these old New 
Yorkers in the wild lands of the west and north, vast and 
princely in extent, and have heard their protest when that 
section of their party that saw hope alone in trade and 
manufactures, sought to fix the burden of taxation upon the 
land. We have followed friends and younger members of 
the families to new homes close beside the wilderness itself, 
and seen the strange distinction of plebeian and patrician in 
these far outposts of civilized society. We have seen them 
socially conservative — in manners, in religion and in the 
theory of politics — but bold in planning for industrial en- 
terprise; and heard them preaching the gospel of a generous 
development of the imperial resources of the state, which 
sounded to the ears of the mechanic and his party in the 
city, as vague, star-misty stuff.^ This interest in canals 
and waterways became a mighty factor in the fortunes of 
their party after it took on the names, Clintonian and Whig. 

The enthusiasm of the Federalists in New York city and 
the Hudson Counties, for these artificial waterways, was 
not based wholly on their landed interest. Calculating 
business men. who foresaw the independence of this 
country in manufacturing, realized how such connection 
would contribute in transportation to and from the fields 
and markets." They understood the arguments that issued 
from the western counties,^ by reason of " the simpathy of 

^National Advocate, June 10, 17, 24, 25, 27, July 10, August 4, 19, 
Sept. 6, 17, 1817; A^. Y. Assembly Journal, 1818, p. 120. 

2 Philip Hone is a good example of such Federalists ; he was heavily- 
interested in the Delaware and Hudson Canal, see letters to A. C. 
Flagg. January 9, 1827 and October 17, 1828, Flagg Mss. Miscellaneous 
Papers, and DeWitt Clinton to Philip Hone, October 6, 1826, Clinton 
Mss. (Letterbook VHI). 

^ It was certainly not surprising that the west should desire an 
improvement that raised the price of wheat fifty per cent before it was 
completed, D. C. Sowers, Financial History of Nezv York State, p. 60. 



LANDHOLDERS' PRINCIPLES 159 

mercantile pursuits and the friendship bred by dependence." ^ 
Yet at first, we have seen, it was probably their natural con- 
cern in the prices of the land they had for sale, that fastened 
their attention on these projects for development. We find 
five senators who represented New York state in Washing- 
ton, the last three party candidates for governor, two score 
of leaders in the state, and their respectable supporters, 
foremost in the prosecution of canal construction. All were 
wealthy Federalists, and all, or nearly all, possessed of 
lands enormous in extent. It seems an inference not un- 
warranted, without uncharitably charging them with want 
of public spirit (since the common good was forwarded at 
once with theirs), that there was some connection in these 
facts. 

The importance of this Federalist paternity for the canai 
schemes brought to final triumph by Clinton, transcends 
that of a mere episode. By reason of the issue often joined 
with Tammany on one side and their opponents on the 
other, there grew up in the western counties a doctrine that 
no good thing could come from counsels of the Democrats. 
Because the party of Schuyler, Morris and Van Rensselaer 
had served their interest far more faithfully than those whj 
listened to the sachems in New York, they developed a habit 
of constant opposition to the latter's candidates. A decade 
or so later, when the Whigs took up the party struggle, in 
a manner more in keeping with the spirit of the time, but 
still imbued with Federalist traditions, these counties each 
November, quite regardless of gains and losses in the other 
sections of the state, voted their support with perfect 
regularity. Acting on the " friendship bred by dependence," 
the Whig leaders made it a cardinal point of faith, that 
the state should be internally improved though, as the 
Democrats maintained, it might entail a debt of foity 
millions.' 

^T. N. Butler to DeWitt Clinton, March 12, 1809, Clinton Mss. 
^ F. W. Seward, William H. Seward (N. Y., i8qi), vol. i, pp. S03-504. 



CHAPTER VI 
Mr. Madison's War 

GuLiAN C. Verplanck was a disappointment to the older 
Federalist leaders. No one of the rising generation had 
shown brighter promise than this young founder of the 
Washington Benevolent Society; his eloquence and energ}^ 
it had been supposed, were permanently dedicated to that 
party's cause. Hence it was with some concern that, in 
Januar}% 1811, they read through a pamphlet signed by one 
" Abimelech Coody, Ladies' Shoemaker," known to be 
Verplanck.^ For here, against all usage, the ardent poli- 
ticians of both sides were held up to an impartial ridicule 
in their raw-head-and-bloody-bones recitals of French spies. 
Old Tories and the Prison Ships. The pamphlet set forth 
that the simple shoemaker had won ten thousand dollars in a 
lottery and sought counsel as to how he might invest his 
" funs." A Federalist schoolmaster warned him solemnly 
against the Manhattan Bank ; its president, he knew, was in 
the pay of Bonaparte. He had it recently from Dr. D wight 
and Oliver Wolcott that a French spy had tried to stab 
good Colonel Fish for fear if he became lieutenant-governor 
he might remove the bank's French clerks. The school- 

^ This is now a rare pamphlet. The full title is as follows : Letier 
to the Hon. Samuel L. Mitchill, M. D., Representative in Congress 
from the City of New York; Professor of Natural His. &c. on the 
Danger of Putting Money into the U. States and Manhattan Banks, 
■with Sundry Novel Speenlations on Insurance Stock, Domestic Manu- 
factures and tlie Best Mode of Vesting a Capital, "So as to Make Both 
Ends Meet." The author has used the copy in the Library of the New 
York Society, endorsed as presented by " C. Clims, Gent. 22nd Janu- 
ary i8ri." 
[60 



MR. MADISON'S WAR l6l 

master advised him to put his money in the " Branch Bank " 
under Mr. Ray, but he was soon stopped by a Democratic 
friend who told him that the Bank of the United States 
was about to be blown up, as was proper since the cashier 
was a nephew of the Lord Mayor of London. He was pre- 
pared to risk his fortune in a ropewalk. when he heard the 
building had been burned by British agents. New York 
insurance stocks he understood were but the playthings ot 
the French. In his extremity he thought of going into 
politics and possibly become a " congress-man, for Mr. 
Baron Gaudenier says that's the best trade going." 

This ridicule of the idea of a French party and this im- 
pertinent jibe at Barent Gardenier were resented by the 
Federalist papers. 

Mr. Coody calls himself a Federalist, [wrote William Coleman 
in the Evening Post] because he votes on the Federalist side, 
and sometimes, I believe, contributes alms to the Federalist 
purse, but if honest Abimelech would go over to the other 
party at once, his open apostasy would be of more service to 
us than either his vote or his money, and for this plain reason, 
because he now has some little influence among certain Fed- 
eralists, and he exerts it only to do mischief.^ 

The independence of Verplanck was all the more aston- 
ishing when one called to mind his Tory-Federalist an- 
cestry,^ yet a trace of heresy might have been discovered 
in his oration of July 4th, 1809, when he had said that the 
protection of their rights could always be confided to the 
common people.' Perhaps it was the influence of Edward 
Livingston, with whom he studied for two years, that was 

^N. Y. Herald, April 6, 181 1. 

*W. C. Bryant, A Discourse on the Life and Writings of Gulian 
Crommelin Verplatuk, delivered before the New York Historical So- 
ciety (N. Y., 1870), pp. 5-14. 

3 Supra, ch. iv. 



l62 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

responsible for these developments ; ^ he was evidently out 
of patience with the stiff-necked Hamiltonians, and his 
democratic tendencies were soon to be dramatically re- 
vealed. 

On the morning of the sixth of August, 1811. Trinity 
Church was crowded to the doors with relatives and friends 
of the seniors of Columbia College, who were that day to 
receive their degrees. Upon the temporary platform set up 
before the chancel were seated the professors, the president, 
and the doughty provost, Dr. John M. Mason, on whom, in 
fact, devolved the conduct of the college.^ One by one the 
young men, in balanced and sententious periods, delivered 
their orations on the glories of the arts or the message of 
the past, possibly without producing deep impression, unt-l 
there came the speech of John B. Stevenson. He had been 
assigned to be respondent in a brief discussion as to the 
right of representatives to disregard instructions and, being 
a Republican in politics, it had been suspected that his zeal 
might outrun decorum. Acting under an old by-law of the 
trustees, certain of the faculty, which was almost wholly 
Federalist in sympathy, had examined the draft of his ora- 
tion, and suggested a more temperate statement. They 
would not have their students, they declared, " pronounce 
any sentiments which might injure themselves or dishonor 
the institution." ^ 

' A correspondence was kept up between Verplanck and Livingston 
after the latter went to Louisiana, see Verplanck Mss. in possession of 
W. E. Verplanck, Fishkill, N. Y., also Biographical Address of Chief 
Justice Daly in Proceedings of the Century Association in Honor of 
the Memory of Gulian Verplanck (N. Y., 1870), pp. 24-25. 

2 J. H. M. Knox, "John M. Mason, S. T. D," in Columbia University 
Quarterly, vol. iii, pp. 26-34. Dr. Mason preached the funeral sermon 
on the death of Hamilton (Morris, Diary and Letters, vol. ii, p. 352) 
and was first designated as the biographer of that statesman (King 
Correspondence, vol. vi. p. 165). 

' Statement of the Faculty of Columbia College, N. Y. Spectator, 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 163 

But on Commencement Day, young Stevenson, to the 
consternation of the reverend gentlemen behind him, spoke 
right on without regard to any of their emendations. As 
he closed he was quietly advised by one of the professors 
that his degree could not be granted on that day. However 
when the parchments were distributed, egged on by certain 
friends, he came forward, but to meet refusal. Hugh 
Maxwell, a relative by marriage,^ leaped to the platform to 
voice a loud objection, and " a species of riot commenced, 
with hissing, clapping, and noisy exultation." ' Verplanck 
now ran forward with some others, demanding of the pro- 
vost an explanation of his course with Stevenson. The 
reasons were not satisfactory, and he harangued the now 
excited audience, moving that the thanks of the meeting be 
given Mr. Maxwell for his spirited defense of an injured 
man. The motion was lost in uproar. An Irishman pro- 
posed three hearty groans for Dr. Mason ; young Repub- 
licans threw up their hats and were for hustling out the 
officers. Colonel Varick crying " Order," was insulted ; 
Oliver Wolcott was silenced ; Mr. Dunscombe, their col- 
league in the board of trustees, declared that the degree 
would not be conferred, if he answered with his life — an 
announcement greeted with a general laugh. No valedictory 
was delivered ; the president pronounced no benediction, but 
hastened from the church. Party indignation now flamed 

July 10, 181 1 ; the account in the text is based chiefly upon the evidence 
presented at the subsequent trial for riot, and reprinted in a pamphlet 
(now marked "very rare") called: The Trial of Gulian C. Verplanck, 
Hugh Maxwell, and others for a Riot in Trinity Church at the Com- 
mencement of Columbia College in August, 1811 (N. Y., 1821). I 
have also used the newspapers of the day. 

' G. A. Morrison, Jr., History of St. Andrew's Society of the State 
of New York (N. Y., 1906), p. 104. 

2 Statement of the Faculty. 



164 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



high, and Verplanck and Maxwell with some others were 
soon haled before the mayor's court for riot.^ 

The mayor was DeWitt Clinton, who seems fully to have 
realized the political importance of the trial. He h'ad been 
narrowly elected lieutenant-governor in the spring, — the 
incumbent. General Broome, had died — though the Repub- 
licans of his own district had voted chiefly for Marinus 
Willet, as the Martling candidate, or even for Colonel Fish, 
the Federalist.- The spirit of the Clinton papers sagged, 
and it was known that his enemies within the party would 
spare no pains to put him out of power.^ His ill-disguised 
contempt for Madison and the national administration had 
lost him popularity, yet in this opposition it seemed quite 
possible that he might win the confidence of his old foes 
the Federalists; at least the time seemed opportune for an 
attempt. 

When the trial for riot came, the witnesses were duly 
questioned, and Dr. Mason, smarting in his wounded pride, 
rolled out his invective against the Jacobins; then the 
mayor's time had come. In his denunciation he far outdid 
the Federalist champions : the learned counsel for defence 
had wasted time when they declared the matter was a mere 
affray or rout ; their authorities were bad. " We have no 
hesitation in declaring that the disturbance which took place 

1 The friends of Mr. Stevenson (who later became famous as a 
physician) on seeing the Statement of the Faculty pubUshed an elaborate 
reply in the A^ Y. Commercial Advertiser, August 12. The trial, after 
a speedy indictment by the grand jury, was held on August 17 before 
what was oflScially known as the Court of Sessions, see C. P. Daly, 
op. cit., and E. Vale Blake, The History of the Tammany Society, 
pp. 50-51- 

^N. Y. Herald, April 3, 6, 13; N. Y. Columbian, April 19; N. Y. 
Spectator, May 18, 181 1. The Constitution of 1777 allowed this plurality 
of offices. 

="'0" to CHnton, March 14, 1811, DeW. Clinton Mss., and J. H. 
Douglass to W. P. Van Ness, Feb. 15, 181 1, VanNess Mss. 




DE WITT CLINTON 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 1 65 

on the occasion alluded to, is the most disgraceful, the most 
unprecedented, the most unjustifiable, and the most out- 
rageous, that ever came within the knowledge of this court." 
Toward Verplanck, " shaping himself with all the self 
created importance of a second Daniel," he was especially 
severe. Readers of the Federalist papers the next morning 
learned that the mayor " after a very conciliatory^ but im- 
pressive address (which we think should be laid before the 
public)," had been content to fine Verplanck and Maxwell 
two hundred dollars each.^ The tirade from the bench had 
a wide political effect. " You have," a friend assured him, 
" become extremely popular with the Federalists for your 
charge and sentence on the rioters at the late commence- 
ment." " But he had as well, as we shall see, won the un- 
dying hatred of Gulian C. Verplanck. 

Few men were more informed as to the doings of the Fed- 
eralists than were the British agents in America. In Septem- 
ber 181 1, Mr. Foster wrote to the Marquess of Wellesley 
that no candidate for president was generally talked of ; in 
November he reported certain rumors of strange coalitions; 
before Christmas he had learned that DeWitt Qinton was to 
be proposed. The new ratio of representation in the Con- 
gress made New York the most important state and much 
might be risked to gain it.^ The " detestation of mob- 
ocracy," which had so marked his censure of the rioters, 
had favorably impressed the party to the east, and they 
were willing to support the mayor of New York, expecting 
as reward appointment to some foreign embassy or financial 

^ N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Aug. 18, 181 1. There were five others 
also tried, convicted and fined. 

'^Ambrose Spencer to Clinton, Sept. 23, 181 1, DeW. Clinton Mss. 

^Mr. (afterward Sir) A. J. Foster to Marquess of Wellesley, Sept. 
17, Nov. 29, Dec. 21, 181 1, Precis Mss. Books (N. Y. P. L.), vol. ii. 



1 66 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

favors from the government/ The rapprochement in New 
York state daily grew more manifest as the winter wore 
away. 

Certain Federalists had made application for a charter 
for a bank. It soon became a party question; Governor 
Tompkins opposed it with all the power of his office, re- 
sorting to the extreme expedient of proroguing the legis- 
lature lest the bill become a law. In the spring 
campaign of 1812 it was the universal theme of con- 
versation from the taverns to the senate chamber. 
Meetings for and against the Bank of America were 
held throughout the state." Republicans accused its 
agents of buying a majority by unstinted bribes. Yet 
in all this DeWitt Clinton showed surprising unconcern, 
even though the fortunes of his own Manhattan Com- 
pany were to be affected ; while his party clamored loud 
against the Federalists and their project, he refused to 
make opinion on this question any test of regularity. His 
brother-in-law. Judge Ambrose Spencer, who had been his 
closest coadjutor, now shook off connection with one who 
had such nice respect for the feelings of the Federalists. 
John Armstrong, soon to be appointed to the cabinet, and 
Judge Tayler, both old Clintonians, likewise refused their 
countenance. " The body-guard of Clinton was tainted with 
the odor of the bank." Although the legislature had a 
strong Clintonian majority, it was with difficulty that a 

' Wm. Sullivan, Familiar- Letters on Public Characters (Boston, 1834), 
p. 349. " Some of the leading Feds," wrote Christopher Gore in 
Massachusetts, " are sanguine that by associating with Democracy, they 
may obtain an immense Bank, and amass princely fortunes," to King, 
Feb. 17, also Feb. 7, 1812. 

'^Albany Republican, April 18, 22, 29, May 6, 13, 27, 1812. For an 
interesting bank proposal on the part of the Republicans, see letter 
from Samuel Osgood, Feb. 22, 1812, Osgood Mss. (N. Y. Historical 
Society) . 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 167 

caucus was induced to nominate the leader for the presi- 
dency/ 

On the nineteenth of June war with Great Britain was 
proclaimed. The Federalists declared their worst fears 
realized; the French democrat, Thomas Jefferson, and his 
imbecile successor had in their mismanagement made dis- 
grace and bankruptcy inevitable. Peace must be restored 
as soon as might be; as to the presidency, which must be 
decided in the autumn, any change would be for the better.* 
Clinton's agents were in Washington and in New England, 
peace men with the Federalists, and with Republicans com- 
plaining of the need for more vigor and efficiency in the 
conduct of the war, all things to all men, careless as to 
means so long as Clinton's fortunes were advanced.* The 
Federalists of the most extreme temper, like the Essex 
Junto which had so harassed John Adams, were ready, as 
with Burr, for any dark conspiracy. But in New York the 
party was divided. Gouverneur Morris, now convinced 
that the Union must sooner or later be divided on the ques- 
ton of the " negro votes," thought it desirable to support 
his friend of the canal board, so as to assert the independ- 
ence of the north.* J. O. Hoffman, who had conducted 

^J. D. Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New 
York, vol. i, pp. 305-310, 312-315; J- S. Jenkins, Lives of the Governors 
of the State of New York, pp. 257, 260; D. D. Barnard, A Discourse 
on... Ambrose Spencer, Albany, pp. 84-89; Ambrose Spencer, Defense, 
etc., Albany, 1843 (N. Y. State Library) : King Correspondence, vol. v, 
p. 265 ct seq. 

*Wm. Sullivan, Familiar Letters, p. 349. 

3 King Correspondence, vol. v, p. 265 et scq. This series has been 
used by D. S. Alexander, Political History of the State of New York, 
vol. i, pp. 202-206. 

* Morris to B. R. Morgan, Aug. 20, 1812, J. Sparks, Life and Writings 
of Gouverneur Morris, vol. iii, pp. 273-274; also Morris, Diary and 
Letters, vol. ii, pp. 542-543. The reference here is to the " three fifths" 
compromise in the Federal Constitution. 



l68 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

some private negotiations, pledged the city delegation to 
the mayor. Emott, D. B. Ogden, Jones and several con- 
gressmen conferred, hesitating somewhat (for they knew 
the mayor well), but finally agreeing to support their 
Massachusetts colleagues in the cause of Clinton. The can- 
didate spared no promises, referring to himself as an 
American Federalist, when occasion suited. At the same 
time some Republicans came to his support under the im- 
pression that he would carry on the war much more 
effectively than Madison.^ 

The Federalists themselves were active in the cause of 
peace. Rufus King, Gouverneur Morris, General Clarkson, 
Colonel Varick and Richard Harison drew up a set of reso- 
lutions for a meeting to be held in Washington Hall. Other 
meetings were conducted through the southern counties with 
large attendance. On the last day of July, Dr. Mason of 
Columbia came to King with a proposal from the mayor. 
He was, the agent said, prepared in all ways to resist tne 
influence of the south, and desired, if it were possible, to 
have a conference with the Federalist leaders that New 
York might be united in the cause. King went to Mor- 
risania to report the plan to Morris, Jay and Clarkson. 
King himself was loath to hold an interview with Clinton, 
but consented to be present provided that nothing more 
than the welding of a peace party be made a subject of the 
conversation. Dr. Mason was apprised and the conference 
arranged. On the appointed day, again at Morris' home, 
the little company was gathered. The resolutions for the 
coming meeting in New York were read to Clinton, and 
he observed, writes King, 

that he supposed that he did not differ from us in opinions 

*J. D. Hammond, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 353, 449-450. See Hoffman's letter 
to H. G. Otis, July 17, 1812 as printed in S. E. Morison, Harrison 
Gray Otis, vol. i, pp. 316-317. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 



169 



respecting the public affairs and that he entirely approved of 
the Resolutions that had been read to him. But as his friends, 
comprehending a great majority of the Republican Party in the 
State, were divided in their opinion respecting the war — pre- 
judices against England leading some of them to approve the 
war, — Time was necessary to bring them to one opinion . . . 
[and] that for these Reasons the proposed Peace meeting in 
the City should be deferred for four or five weeks. ^ 

The candidate desired no untimely publication of his var- 
ious professions. 

Rufus King opposed this dubious connection ; when 
Clinton said that if elected President, he would administer 
the government upon the principles of Hamilton, King, for 
one, was not impressed.^ Talking to his friends he made 
certain observations which illustrate his good sense. 

I observed to them [he writes] that I looked upon Mr. Clinton 
as upon every Leader of a Faction ; that so long as he went on 
according to their views and bias, so long he wd. lead them, but 
as soon as he opposed their views, and more certainly as soon 
as he united with the rival Faction for any purpose, he would 
be deserted by his own. 

With Spencer, Tompkins, Armstrong and Tayler all against 
him, it was doubtful if he could bring over much Republican 
support, yet unless he could bring numbers he was not 
worth accepting. It was of less importance, said King, 
that the party gain a transitory power than that their 
reputation and integrity should be preserved unblemished. 
Coalition with a foe they had so long reviled would tarnish 
all concerned. Clinton and his partisans would publish such 
reports of the arrangement as might suit their purposes, 
and when the mischief had been done, the Federalists 

^ King Correspondence, loc. cit. 

^J. A. Hamilton, Reminiscences, p. 44. 



170 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



might be obliged to answer with ill-credited denials/ 
After the conference King went to town, saw Hari- 
son, Egbert Benson, Peter Radcliffe and some others, and 
the peace meeting was arranged for the following week. 
" Gentlemen of the very first standing in society " were 
there; Colonel Fish was chairman, and the resolutions, 
which suggested a convention of the friends of peace, pre- 
sented by John Wells and D. B. Ogden, were passed with 
great enthusiasm." 

Shortly after the declaration of war, William Sullivan, 
the president of the Boston branch of the Washington 
Benevolent Society, was at Saratoga Springs to take the 
waters. While walking in the groves one day with some 
New England friends, a project was conceived of calling 
a convention of Federalists to meet in New York city in 
•the early autumn, and the gentlemen went home to prepare 
opinion and arrange the delegations of their respective 
states.* Agreeable to this plan more than seventy repre- 
sentatives gathered on the fifteenth of September as a party 
convention, though keeping the close privacy of a caucus.* 
King was in attendance ; lest since his own name had been 

^ King Correspondence, vol. v, pp. 270-271. 

' N. Y. Evening Post, August 18, 1812. One resolution was " that 
representatives be chosen in the several counties, discreet men, friends 
of peace. These representatives can correspond or confer with others, 
and cooperate with the friends of peace in our sister States in devising 
and procuring such constitutional measures as may secure our independ- 
ence and preserve our Union, both of which are endangered by the 
present war." See H. C. Lodge, Life and Letters of George Cabot 
(Boston, 1875), p. 523. 

^Wm. Sullivan, Familiar Letters, pp. 350-351. 

*A''. Y. Evening Post, Sept. 19, 1812. The convention like that of 
1808 was organized by irregularly chosen committees of correspondence. 
The New York committee was Jacob Radcliffe, C. S. Riggs, J. O. 
Hoffman, D. B. Ogden and John Wells ; S. E. Morison, Otis, vol. i, 
pp. 308-309, note. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 



171 



mentioned for President his absence might be misconstrued. 
He stated his desire that a true FederaHst be nominated, 
even though it meant defeat. Mr. Madison could not ruin 
the coimtry in four years, and at the expiration of that 
period, the country, tired of mis-rule, would bring the Fed- 
eralists to power with as much support as Jefferson's in i8(X). 
Against Clinton, he is said to have pronounced a most im- 
passioned invective, becoming " so excited during his address 
that his knees trembled under him." The meeting dragged 
on for three days and was about to be dispersed with no 
agreement, when Harrison Gray Otis, rising in behalf of 
Clinton and speaking at first with hesitation, hat in hand, 
delivered an appeal so eloquent in summing up the troubles 
of the country and the crying need for change, that his can- 
didate, though not formally endorsed, was generally ac- 
cepted.^ 

The controversy grew bitter in the press and on the plat- 
form, for Clinton's enemies were not tender of his sensi- 
bilities. His apostasy was scornfully proclaimed and his 
opinions on the war set up in vitiating parallel.' " Washing- 
ton " and " Hamilton " addressed the country to his preju- 
dice, and King was quoted as desiring no aid from treach- 
ery.^ When the legislature was convened on the second of 
November to choose presidential electors, three tickets were 
presented, the Martling Men or Madisonians, the followers 

* Sullivan, p. 350, says he was regularly nominated, but it appears 
from evidence adduced by S. E. Morison in his Otis, vol. i, pp. 310311, 
that the resolutions were ambiguous, and that the nomination of Clinton 
was not understood by a number of members. John Jay was mentioned 
as a candidate, but it was objected that, superannuated and unpopular, he 
" could no more be president than Seneca could Emperor." S. Dexter to 
H. G. Otis, Sept. 12, 1812, Morison, Otis, vol. i, p. 319. 

*E. g. pamphlet, The Coalition, N. Y., 1812 (N. Y. P. L.). 

^Washington to the People of the United States (Boston, 1812), p. 28, 
and Hamilton to the People of the United States (N. Y., 1812), 
pamphlets in the N. Y. P. L. 



172 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

of Clinton, and those Federalists who had taken King's ad- 
vice to stand alone. The spring election had retained a 
small Federalist majority in the lower house/ but since they 
voted in joint session with the Democratic senate, their 
cause was hopeless as a party. Enough, then, cast their 
ballots with the Clinton men to give him the vote of the 
state, though many stalwarts voted for their old associates." 
In the total electoral vote of the country, however, Madison 
defeated him, though by no great majority ; all his balancing 
and shifting had been useless. 

Meanwhile attention in the state had been fastened on 
the conduct of the war, which might mean an invasion into 
the region by the lakes and the St. Lawrence. The Presi- 
dent had scarcely called upon the governor for the quota of 
New York, when it was announced that Stephen Van 
Rensselaer, the Patroon, had been called to lead the troops. 
No little comment was aroused. It was generally under- 
stood that this distinguished Federalist was to be his party's 
candidate for governor at the election in the spring. Why 
had Tompkins picked him out for this responsibility? It 
is true he had been adjutant general of the state, but this 
had been an office more of dignity than practical impor- 
tance ; he was no military man.^ Was he tendered this po- 
sition as a compliment, in hope of winning Federalist sup- 
port to the war policy ? Some were ungenerous enough to 
think that Tompkins did not dislike to put his rival in a 
place of danger. Considering the difficulties of the service 
a failure seemed inevitable and the General's eulogists have 
not neglected to suggest that Tompkins was quite willing 

^N. Y. Spectator, May 6, and N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, May 25, 
give the returns by counties. 

'^N. Y. Senate Journal, 1812-1813, p. 8; J. S. Jenkins, Lives of the 
Governors, p. 265. 

'Mrs. C. V. R. Bonney, A Legacy of Historical Gleanings, yoI. i, 
pp. 195, 260. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 1 73 

that that failure should be fixed upon the Federalists.' 
Acceptance or refusal would alike entail disgrace, the Demo- 
crats were watching for a sign of cowardice. Whether or 
not these charges were well founded, the event gave them 
some color; Van Rensselaer sought to lead his men across 
the Niagara River to gain the field at Queenstown ; as state 
troops for defence they would not follow into Canada; the 
detachment which obeyed commands was cut to pieces ; the 
failure was complete." The Patroon had suffered all that 
Tompkins could have wished. 

The Federalist majority in the lower house, as has been 
pointed out. was not enough to carry a joint session; hence 
when his party nominated Rufus King for the Senate of 
the United States, many thought it but a courtesy. He was 
a " Federalist of the old school," as those were called who 
would not join with Clinton," and consequently he could not 
hope for much support from the old adherents of the latter. 
It was, then, a matter of no small surprise to those outside 
the arcana of the leaders that the vote was found to give 
him the election. Certain evidence has been preserved that 
connects the result with a bargain made by the agents of 
the Bank of America the year before,* but surely few more 
happy consequences have proceeded from so wrong a cause ; 
it was the restoration of a statesman to the councils of a' 
nation. He went to the Senate with the prestige of some 
" democratical assistance," announced the maxim that to 

' D. D. Barnard, Discourses on Stephen Van Rensselaer (Alban)', 
1839), p. 27; J. W. Redway, " General Van Rensselaer and the Niagara 
Frontier," Proceedings of the New York State Historical Society, vol. 
viii, (Albany, 1909), p. 20; A''. Y. Spectator, Nov. 11, 1812. 

* See the excellent account of the battle, vi^ith reports and correspond- 
ence, in Mrs. Bonney's Legacy, vol. i, pp. 256-298. 

'J. D. Hammond, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 349-350. 

*Ibid., p. 344. Hammond claims to have direct knowledge of this 
bargain but exonerates King from any connection with it. 



174 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

end the war, however unjust and deplorable it was, was 
now to fight it to a decent finish — and by this stand became 
an oracle with the Democracy/ 

Whatever may have been the Federalist power in joint 
session, their control of the assembly gave them the Council 
of Appointment. As three years before, the spoils of vic- 
tory were portioned out among the party, but a special 
interest was shown in the question of the mayor of New 
York. Mr. Clinton had discharged his duties with much 
energy and spared no pains to put the city in a posture of 
defense, yet he was still in name a member of the opposi- 
tion.^ If he were named for reappointment it would offend 
the Federalists of the old school; if he were refused, those 
Federalists who had recommended him to other states for 
the highest office of the nation would be stultified. General 
Piatt, then sitting on the Council, had been among the latter 
group, and, though knowing it would be offensive in some 
quarters, proposed the mayor for renomination. Peter 
Radcliffe, another member, claimed the office for his brother 
Jacob who had served in 1810; Radcliffe was passed by for 
Clinton and, as we shall see, became embittered toward his 
party.^ But the clemency accorded Mr. Clinton was not 
extended to his friends in office; the time had not arrived 
for a general party coalition. 

The acceptance of this Federalist patronage by the mayor 
himself seemed a final insult to Judge Spencer and the 
Madisonian or Martling faction. They nominated Gov- 
ernor Tompkins for re-election and for lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, they ignored Clinton, the incumbent,* for Judge 

'King to Gore, Feb. 14, 1813, King Correspondence; see also ibid., 
vol. V, pp. 292, 310, and John Lovett to Col. Sol. Van Rensselaer, 
June 22, 1813, Mrs. Bonney's Legacy, vol. i, p. 301. 

'David Hosack. Memoir of DeWitt Clinton, p. 52. 

*Wm. Henderson to King, Feb. 21, 1813; Hammond, vol. i, pp. 346-350- 

* It will be remembered that he held both this office and that of mayor. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 



175 



Tayler. The Republican party was now definitely broken; 
Clintonians soon published an address declaring that they 
would not support the Tompkins ticket, and inveighing 
against Virginia domination and its agents in New York, 
they charged that the bounty of the general government 
" has been lavished on the most unworthy objects; the most 
uniform, decided, influential, virtuous and able men of the 
republican party have been proscribed; George Clinton, the 
father of his country — yes, George Clinton, was publicly 
denounced at a meeting of these Martling Men." ^ Never 
again would Clinton bring together the Democracy; his 
paper the Albany Register was abandoned by the Madi- 
sonians and the Argus set up in its stead.^ 

With the opposition so divided the Federalists were san- 
guine of success. The Patroon, as had been expected, was 
proposed for governor. There had been some opposition 
to his name because he had ordered state troops to cross at 
Queenstown. Some wanted his kinsman Colonel Solo- 
mon Van Rensselaer, who had won the laurels of a hero on 
that fatal day, but he would not stand against the leader of 
his family.^ General Van Rensselaer was an amiable man, 
a friend to both " schools " of the party, and with a record 
for honesty and service that made his name attractive.* 

' Address to the Republican Citizens of the State of New York 
(Albany,. 1813), also noticed in the Albany Argus, April 30. The address 
was supposed to have been written by Clinton. It was signed by him, 
Pierre Van Cortlandt, Simeon DeWitt, Archibald Mclntyre and thirty- 
seven others. George Clinton had recently died. 

*"I am highly pleased that the Albany Argus is established at the 
seat of our Govt as it is of Greatest importance that such a paper should 
be established at Albany to buck the Albany Register and to prevent the 
Republicans being misled by such a Vile paper as the federals formerly 
called it but now they say it is the best in the State." Caleb Hyde to 
C D. Cooper, Feb. 7, 1813, Cooper Mss. (N. Y. P. L.). 

'Wm. Henderson to King, Feb. 21, 1813. 

* S. Van Rensselaer to King, Feb. 12, 1813, George Huntington of 
Oneida was named for lieutenant-governor. 



176 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEIV YORK 

The nominations were presented in the party papers as of 
the " Friends of Peace, Liberty and Commerce," ^ but there 
was some difficulty in explaining the candidate's position on 
the war. Some said he had opposed it, but there was his 
record at the crossing of the Niagara. Federalists main- 
tained he had not volunteered, but had responded to the 
governor's commands; they were answered that as a free 
man, he had gone without compulsion.' The Federalists 
said that Tompkins had neglected Colonel Solomon Van 
Rensselaer when he lay wounded in the hospital at Buffalo 
— was this the soldier's friend ? " The governor's proroga- 
tion of the legislature on the question of the bank was now 
recalled against him, and it was charged that he was con- 
trolled by Virginia and the west.* The Federalist arguments 
again won a majority of the assembly, but Van Rensselaer 
could not overcome the popularity of Tompkins. " The 
Farmer's Boy " was chosen for another term.^ 

When John C. Calhoun and his young colleagues forced 
the peaceful Madison to attempt the conquering of Canada, 
the concurrent majorities in all of the co-states were not 
deemed indispensable. It was professedly a war for the 
freedom of the seas, to which the shipping states seemed 
obstinately indifferent. " Free Trade and Sailors' Rights " 
was a cry that rallied to the government's support every 
class throughout the countr}^ — save the traders and sailors. 
New England merchants and ship-captains preferred to 
run their risks to the closing of all commerce on a point of 

^N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 7. 

'^Albany Argus, April 9, 16. 

'^Albany Gazette, April 10, 1813, and Mrs. Bonney's Legacy, vol. i, 
pp. 282, 292, 293. 

■•AT. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 26, 28, 1813. 

^ N. Y. Spectator, May 5, 15; A'^. Y. Commercial Advertiser, May 8; 
and Albany Argus, May 7, 1813. The southern, middle and western 
senatorial districts went Republican, Hammond, vol. i, p. 358. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 



177 



dignity, and when defeated by tlie planters and frontiers- 
men, they resorted to " a larger patriotism " that sought to 
stultify the government. In their exasperating course they 
were not followed by New York. 

Even the Federalists along the Hudson and the Mohawk, 
though resentful of Virginia domination, were less resolute 
in their defiance than their blue-light brethren to the east. 
Seafaring men, who so keenly felt the restrictions of the 
war, did not comprise so large a fraction of their population. 
They had no caste of clergj-men to preach the holiness of 
hating southerners. Class prejudice was not so perfectly 
coincident with partisan division, for the Livingstons and 
their like could scarcely be included with the mob. But 
above all the circumstance that New York was in constant 
danger of invasion from the north (while New England 
for reasons military no less than moral was immune), 
made overt opposition to the goveniment less popular in 
that state. Of course, there were some extremists who in 
their denunciation could vie with Otis, Strong and Quincy. 
Gouverneur Morris drew up a paper of some nineteen fools- 
cap pages arraigning Jefferson and Madison in outrageous 
terms, and forwarded it to Albany in hope of having it 
adopted as a legislative report.^ In the first year of the 
war he urged his nephew, D. B. Ogden, to " get the ear of 
a committee of the whole House and draw in its own 
hideousness a picture of our administration " and then 
broach a scheme for a convention with delegates from all 
the counties in the state to decide whether they should join 
New England in any necessary measure. Ogden was much 
too sensible to follow this advice, but Morris made no secret 
of his strong convictions ; to him secession seemed inevitable 
and the sooner it was done, the better for all concerned.^ On 

' Wm. Henderson to King, King Correspondence, vol. v, p. 296. 

* Morris, Diary and Letters, vol. ii, p. 562. He called the Hartford 
Gjnvention a tame affair, J. Sparks, Life and M'^ritings of Gouverneur 
Morris, vol. iii. p. 326. 



178 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

the other hand, some Federalists boldly broke with the ma- 
jority of their party, heartily supported Madison and 
Tompkins in their conduct of the war, were applauded as 
great patriots by the Republicans, and were elected to the 
legislature by Republican votes.^ The majority of Feder- 
alists in New York were between the two extremes. 

Most leaders deplored the war and sharply criticized the 
administration, though one does not find the tendency 
toward treason that marked the utterance of their Massa- 
chus'jtts friends. The answer of the assembly to the gov- 
ernor's speech in November, 18 12, drafted by Elisha Wil- 
liams, J. O. Hoffman, and Daniel Cady of Montgomery 
County," expressed their sentiment in language courteous 
but firm. They understood the dangers of the state, the 
exposed frontier, in parts quite unprotected, and the 
enemy's flotillas on the lakes. They appreciated the em- 
barrassments of the governor, yet still they would rebuke 
him for too great a preference for the northern garrisons 
while New York city lay the prey of any British fleet. 
What glory might not rest upon the American cause, if 
the prudent naval policy of Washington and Adams had 
been carried on by their successors! The few redeeming 
honors of the year had been achieved by ships they had 
provided. " The burthen of this war has fallen on this 
state." they said, " and in proportion to our evident ex- 
posure ought to be our means of resistance." Yet they 
would not sanction any order of the forces of the state 
beyond its boundaries. They described the war as " sudden 
and unexpected," and, though opposed in this by the Re- 
publicans in debate, having the majority they made the 
phrase a part of the address.^ 

1 Hammond, vol. i, p. 376. 2 at. y. Spectator, Nov. 11, 1812. 

'A^. Y. Assembly Journal, 1812-1813, pp. 30-32; A^. Y. Commercial 
Advertiser, Nov. g, 1812. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 



179 



As the months wore on in discouragement they became 
more clamorous for peace. In their answer to the governor 
the following year, when again they held the power in the 
assembly, they took a higher tone. The government of the 
United States, they complained, did not desire peace; the 
delegation sent to Europe at the Czar's suggestion was but 
a ruse to raise the credit of the nation in the money market. 
Yet what money could be borrowed would be used to hasten 
ruin to the country. As to schemes of taxes in the state to 
support the general government, which Tompkins had out- 
lined in his speech, they would not endorse them. New 
York needed her resources to protect herself; let no money 
leave the state. That the war had been a failure was no 
surprise to them, when they considered the shameful un- 
preparedness, which had been an article of faith with 
Democrats, and the character of the men who had been 
chosen as commanders. 

" It is much to be regretted," they remarked, " that as 
the general government selected their own time to com- 
mence this war, they had not, if they believed the war 
necessary, first provided a respectable and efficient force with 
which to carry it on." There should have been no lust of 
conquest and no expeditionary forces, but as Americans, 
they were mortified to hear the governor exult " that our 
troops have shown prowess in defending our country 
eighteen months after the commencement of a war which 
the American people were told was to put the Canadas in 
our possession six months from the time it was declared." 
One draft of the address praised the magnanimity of Eng- 
land in suggesting peace " at a moment when the British 
nation, after a struggle of near twenty years, has succeeded 
by the aid of her allies, and the God of armies, in saving 
the world from universal domination and stands upon a 
high eminence among the nations of the earth." But not 



l8o ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

many thought such encomiums appropriate, and this sen- 
tence was struck out/ Such sentiments were aired in pub- 
lic meetings, and the party papers set themselves no limitsi 
in their abuse of Madison and apology for England. Like 
all minorities they claimed an unrestricted liberty of speech.' 
In tolerating all these calumnies the government exhibited a 
self-restraint in harmony with the creed of 1801, although 
had they followed Federalist precedent and passed sedition 
laws, they might have added civil conflict to their troubles. 

Of the navy (the old favorite of the Federalists) and the 
brilliant achievements of its commanders, the assembly 
wanted " words to express their admiration. Inhabitants 
of a great commercial state, the people of New York must 
rejoice to hear your Excellency speaking in terms of appro- 
bation of that species of national force which alone can be 
effectual to maintain and defend our rights upon the 
ocean." ^ Scarcely had the legislature met when Charles 
King, the Senator's second son, then twenty-five years old, 
brought in a set of resolutions: "That though we cannot 
approve the disastrous and destructive war in which we 
are engaged, the House of Assembly of the people of the 
State of New York feel great satisfaction in expressing 
their admiration of the conduct of Com. Ferry," of Bur- 
roughs, Lawrence and Allen and the other heroes who had 
lost their lives at sea: and "That, in the opinion of this 
house, the conduct of our naval commanders and seamen 
during this ruinous war, ought to satisfy every reflecting 
mind that our commercial rights are to be defended and 

'A''. Y. Assembly Journal, 1814, pp. 68-74, 98-f04. 

-See A. Van Vechten's speech and Sedgwick's resolutions at a meeting 
in Albany, .V. Y. Evening Post, Sept. 14, 1812. In the first years of the 
war they held a number of such meetings to insist upon the right of 
free speech. But since the government did nothing to curb their utter- 
ance, the meetings were discontinued as superfluous. 

* N. Y. Assembly Journal, 1814. loc. cit. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR l8l 

maintained by a navy, and not by embargoes and com- 
mercial restrictions." 

The Republicans had no objection to hurrahing for the 
navy, but they could not pass unchallenged the epithets 
which King and his supporters fastened on the war at large. 
William Ross declared them to be most impolitic in the 
effect which they would have upon the enemy, and others 
of his party claimed that to call the cause unjust affixed 
the guilt of murderers upon the fighters whether on the sea 
or on the land. To damn the war and praise the warriors 
seemed to them a curious confusion. But the Federalists 
would not subtract a word. They had called the war de- 
structive and disastrous only, said D. B. Ogden, though he, 
before God and his country, would have voted for the reso- 
lutions had they said unjust as well. It was an iniquitous 
war, " commenced, as he believed, for the purpose of 
humbling the importance of the northern states." John 
B. Coles would praise the navy while he expressed his de- 
testation of the war. Samuel Jones declared that seamen 
had no right to voice their own opinions, theirs but to obey 
commands ; this spirit he would cordially applaud. William 
A. Duer maintained that they alone had rescued our flag 
from disgrace. Others acclaimed the honorable course of 
Perry who, like many other naval officers, was known to be 
at heart against the war.^ A few days after the resolutions 
were passed the Federalists of New York city, three 
hundred and fifty of them with Richard Varick at their 
head, gave a banquet in Washington Hall to Commodore 
Chauncey. There was manifested great enthusiasm for the 
" guardians of our commerce," but no word was said in 
honor of the army.^ 

^N. Y. Assembly Journal, 1814, pp. 17-18, 23-24. 26-29; N. Y. Specta- 
tor, Feb, 9, 1814. 

*A^, Y. Commercial Advertiser, Feb. 5, 1814. At the meeting of the 



l82 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

The Federalists let pass no opportunity to rail against 
Napoleon. When in 1814 Holland was emancipated, the 
Dutchmen of the party were called to a meeting in Albany 
by the Patroon, Van Vechten, J. R. Van Rensselaer and 
Hermaiius Bleecker. Great satisfaction was proclaimed at 
seeing curbed this arch-disturber who had so well illustrated 
the inevitable tendency from demagogue to despot.'^ When 
the emperor was sent to Elba the leaders of the party, Jay 
and King, with John B. Coles and General Clarkson, met 
at Mr. Grade's and planned a solemn celebration. An as- 
sembly was convened and after a prayer of thanksgiving by 
Dr. Mason, Gouverneur Morris pronounced an " oration 
of triumph to celebrate the downfall of Bonaparte and the 
restoration of the Bourbons," while King presided at a 
public dinner in the evening." But soon these gentlemen 
had more serious concerns than toasting Louis XVIII of 
France. 

Washington Benevolent Society in New York city, Feb. 22, 1814, the 
navy was toasted, but not the army; and in the ode recited before the 
societj'- on July 4 of that year, this distinction was again observed, 
ibid., Feb. 23, and July 5, 1814. Like opinions were expressed by the 
New York Federalists in the Thirteenth Congress. Two-thirds of the 
thirty members of the delegation in the lower house were of that party, 
Moss Kent, Morris S. Miller, T. P. Grosvenor, Samuel M. Hopkins, and 
others, all known from their aged colleague as " Judge Benson's Boys." 
Thomas J. Oakley was especially effective. " He is prompt, luminous 
and pointed," said a member. " In the most shrewd and cunning man- 
ner he assails the President, yet in such cautious phraseology, that no 
old Foxes can check him." Another declared that if the Federalists 
in Congress had accepted his exclusive leadership the administration 
would have been prostrated. See John Lovett to Joseph Alexander, 
June 17, 1813, in Mrs. Bonney's Legacy, vol. i, pp. 299-300, and Ham- 
mond, vol. i, pp. 357, 428. A volume of their speeches, which were cir- 
culated as pamphlets, is now in the Cornell University Library. 

^N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Feb. 17, 1814. 

* Oration delivered June 29, 1814 in Celebration of the Recent Deliver- 
ance of Europe from the Yoke of Military Despotism (pamphlet, 23 pp. 
in N. Y. P. L.) ; Jay Correspondence, vol. iv, pp. 374-375 ; Morris, Diary 
and Letters, vol. ii, p. 565. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 183 

In the summer of 18 14 General Ross, after routing the 
mihtia at the " Bladensburg races," marched on to Wash- 
ington, burned the capitol and phmdered the President's 
house. The sea-coast towns were set in a flurry. What 
Admiral Cockburn had done in Chesapeake Bay he might do 
again in the Delaware or in the Hudson. The city of 
New York was carefully made ready by Clinton, who 
remained as its efficient mayor until removed by the 
Madisonian Council the next winter; and Federalists, con- 
fronted with the prospect of bombardment, joined hands 
with the Republicans. No longer did they content them- 
selves with giving money for relief of sufferers along the 
lakes.' The rolls of " The New York Hussars " contained 
such names as Robert Troup, Nicholas Low, John A. King, 
Robert Ray, Herman Le Roy, Cornelius Schermerhorn and 
I. V. Coles. Charles King became a captain in the state 
militia, James G. King, his younger brother, became an aid 
to General Stevens, J. R. Van Rensselaer raised a troop of 
soldiers to march down from Columbia County.^ When 
some complained because the banks suspended payment, 
Rufus King addressed a meeting stating " that in such a 
time of peril and danger as the present it was the duty of 
all well disposed citizens to join in the defense of each 
other and the country ;" the banks had been driven to this 
last expedient and should be supported. " The enemy is at 
our doors," he said, " and it is now useless to mquire how 
he came there; he must be driven away and every man join 
hand and heart, and place shoulder to shoulder to meet 
him."" 

The enemy did not molest the city of New York, but the 

^See letter from Clinton, Feb. 21, 1814. DeW. Clinton Mss.. and 
N. Y. Assembly Journal, 1814, p. 3. 
* King Correspondence, vol. v, pp. 426-427. note. 
^N. Y. Evening Post, Sept. 2. 1814. 



l84 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

spirit of resistance which the rumor had developed did not 
easily die down; many Federalists who had joined the 
militia for home defense, remained in arms to fight in other 
quarters, and others cheered their new decision. " Things 
being what they are," wrote John Jay, " I think we cannot 
be too united in a determination to defend our country, nor 
be too vigilant in watching and resolutely examining the 
conduct of the administration in all its departments." ^ 
King in Congress led the Federalists to vote supplies 
and money to the troops, and pledged his private credit to 
the governor of New York state if he should need it to 
complete his budget.^ Though at first a sharp opponent of 
the war, he now bent all his energies to bring it to a close by 
stiff resistance to the foe. 

This spirit was not shared by all the party. Morris wrote 
long and earnest letters of remonstrance. 

How often, in the name of God, how often will you agree to 
be cheated? What are you to gain by giving Mr. Madison 
Men and Money? ... I feel myself bound in Duty and 
Honor to declare that anything like a Pledge by Federalists to 
carry on this wicked War, strikes me like a Dagger to my 
Heart.' 

Many looked with hope to the Hartford Convention which 
was meeting in the autumn. Even King, feeling great con- 
fidence in the character and patriotism of the members of 
that body, rejoiced that New England was to speak in 
words that would be heard. Madison, he said, had been 
ignorant of the true opinion of that section, depending, as 
had George the Third, upon reports of sycophantic ap- 

^Jay Correspondence, vol. iv, p. 379. 

^King Correspondence, vol. v, pp. 410-41 1, 422-424; N. V. Evening 
Post, Jan. 13, 1815. 

' Morris to King, Oct. 18, 1814, King Correspondence. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR ig- 

pointees/ But Morris hoped for more than a mere protest. 
There was, he thanked God, some sense in Massachusetts, 
and should the rest of New England join her, all might be 
well. What was needed was " An Union of the commercial 
States to take Care of themselves, leaving the War, its ex- 
pense and its Debt to those choice Spirits so ready to declare 
and so eager to carry it on." ' As for the old Union, he 
considered it dead since the repeal of the Judiciary Act in 
rSoi.^ Judge Benson also hoped that the Hartford body 
would take a " federal course." Yet the majority of Fed- 
eralists had been stoutly opposed to any scheme of secession. 

Resolved, unanimously [ran the record of a public meeting in 
the spring of 1813] that the friends of Peace, Liberty and 
Commerce, are also the friends of the union of these States; 
and that although they believe it was never the intention of the 
union, that the rights of any one part should be sacrificed to 
the prejudices, interests, or corrupt purposes of another, yet 
they consider a dissolution of the union as an event which can 
only be contemplated with horror.* 

After a year and a half when it was proposed by Van 
Vechten, Tibbits, J. R. Van Rensselaer, William A. Duer 
and others that a convention from the counties be held to 
consider a participation with the easterners, there was little 
or no response. ° One thing is very evident, as Judge Ham- 
mond says, that the Federalists of New York as a party 
never sanctioned the proposals of the Hartford Convention.^ 
The Federalists, who had capitalized discontent to such 

^ King Correspondence (memorandum), vol. v, pp. 444-446. 
^Morris to King, Oct. 18, No. i, 1814. 
' S, Van Rensselaer to King, Oct. 25, 1814. 
*N. Y. Spectator, April 28, 1813. 

* N. Y. Evening Post, Sept. 28, 1814. 

* Political History, vol. i, p. 388. 



l86 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

good purpose, refused, naturally enough, to be comforted 
by peace. By party politicians the prosperity of the nation 
while ruled by their opponents is dreaded as an affliction; 
old hardships must not fade from memory. " The storm 
is passed by," said they. " As peace men we rejoice at it; 
but humbly hope that our countrymen, with a due sense of 
the calamities they have escaped, will remember the guilty 
authors of their sufferings and dangers." Who could forget 
the miserable failure of the conquest of the Canadas, the 
threats of conscription, the deceits and tricks by which boys 
under age had been inveigled from their homes to join the 
army, or the oppression of an administration which had 
laid such taxes to pay usurious premiums. Lands and 
houses, carriages and harnesses, furniture, leather, paper, 
hats, tobacco — what had escaped the assessor's lists? ^ Such 
memories as these, so potent in minds of moneyed men, built 
up the Federalists' strength in the spring campaign of 1815, 
so that as the votes were counted for the members of as- 
sembly, it was clear that the Republican majority would 
be slight indeed. Only the almost solid west had made even 
such a margin possible, and the death or illness of some 
members from that section, made it likely, as the body was 
convened in January, that the Federalists would gain con- 
trol of the Council of Appointment.^ 

How this was circumvented is too notorious in the history 
of the state to need complete recounting here.^ The vote 
for speaker was carried by the Republicans by a majority 
of one, but the Federalists straightway charged that this one 
should be thrown out. The clerk of Ontario County had 

' N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 21, 24, 1815. 

-Ibid., April 26, et seq.; N. Y. Columbian, Jan. 4, 1816; Wm. Hender- 
son to King, Jan. 19, W. W. VanNess lo King, Jan. 31, and T. Dwight, 
Feb. 10, 1816. 

^ See Hammond, vol. i, pp. 413-418. 



MR. MADISON'S IV AR 1 87 

" most corruptly and flagitiously " given his certificate to 
Peter Allen rather than to Henry Fellows, the Federalist 
opponent, because the ballots for the latter, though more 
numerous, had some of them borne his first name in ab- 
breviation rather than in full. No one questioned the in- 
tention of the electors of Ontario, yet by repeated votes in 
which Allen's was decisive, it was determined tO' proceed 
to choose the council of appointment before the house 
considered Fellows' petition for instatement. A Demo- 
cratic council, therefore, was selected, and then Fellows 
was admitted. It took a hardy partisan to say a word for 
such a naked fraud, and Federalists hoped for more profit 
from popular disgust, than could have come from capture 
of the council. An assembly, and a governor as well, 
might now be gained at the spring election of 18 16. 

Judge William W. Van Ness had promised the year be- 
fore, with some reluctance, to resign the certain honors and 
emoluments of his position, and risk the contest as a 
candidate.^ But now that the Council of Appointment had 
been lost, his resignation would elevate a Democrat to the 
supreme bench, and by that office to the Council of Re- 
vision ; ^ hence another candidate for governor would be 
preferred. About a hundred politicians of the party were 
convened at Albany in no little agitation. A committee 
waited on the judge but he was firm in his refusal, and the 
body was with difficulty kept from adjourning without any 
nomination. A resolution was passed that the choice of the 

* "I am urged to consent to a measure which will ruin one if it succeeds, 
and I am told the party will be ruined if I don't consent. I take it for 
granted I shall be compelled to yield contrary to my wishes — my feel- 
ings — my interests — and my judgment." W. W. Van Ness to Sol. Van 
Rensselaer, Oct. 17, 1815, Mrs. Bonney's Legacy, vol. i, pp. 325-326, 

*This council under the Constitution of 1777, composed of the gov- 
ernor, the chancellor and the judges of the supreme court, held the veto 
power, see A. B. Street, The Council of Revision. 



l88 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

majority would be the choice of all, but none of the many- 
names could gain support of a majority, although James 
Emott missed by only one. Once more adjournment was 
considered, or, what would be worse, a nomination of the 
judge with certainty of declination, when some one pre- 
sented the name of Rufus King. 

" It was impossible to describe the enthusiasm with which 
this nomination was received, when it was strongly urged 
to the Convention that under present circumstances we had 
every reason to hope that Mr. King would not decline." ^ 
Eight letters from gentlemen of wealth and station were 
that ver}^ night dispatched to the senator in Washington. 
" Your Acceptance of the Nomination," said one signed by 
five friends and leaders, " is essential to preserve the Har- 
mony and Unity of the federal party in the State." " With- 
out the magic of his name the convention would have 
broken up, wrote General Jacob Morris. Chancellor Kent 
saw in his action the success or ruin of the conservative 
element in the state. The Patroon urged him to deliberate, 
at least, before he came to a decision; if favorable, he would 
electioneer for him with all his zeal and influence. T. J. 
Oakley assured him that the leaders asked this favor only 
from the deepest sense of duty to the party. Theodore 
Dwight declared that if New York could not be redeemed 
Federalism in the United States was doomed. It was known 
that Clinton would be named, if King's refusal made it 
possible for Clintonians to count on Federalist support. It 
was charged by Democrats, indeed, that the Federalists 
had known that King would not accept and had announced 
him as a candidate merely to cover their design of later 

' Wm. A. Duer to Wm. Henderson, Feb. i6, and J. R. Van Rensselaer 
to King, Feb. i6, 1816. 

^ Signed by H. Bleecker, Peter A. Jay, J. G. Lansing, Jiio. Duer. and 
T. R. Van Rensselaer. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 



189 



joining hands with Clinton. If the senator declined, suffi- 
cient of the party, it was feared, ( for there were now more 
real Clinton men among the Federalists than among their 
opponents) would fulfill the prophecy of the Democrats. 

King was not the only leader of unblemished reputation, 
but the others of that kind had not the force to win. On 
the other hand, as to the stronger men, scandals of the 
Bank of America charter were not forgotten and even Van 
Ness had been unpleasantly mentioned. 

There is such a cloud over the character of several gentlemen, 
who may be considered the leaders of the party of this State 
[wrote D. B. Ogden to King] that I have long feared that the 
most respectable men of the community would withdraw in 
disgust from taking any interest in our politics, or any part in 
our elections . . . Your election would be a new era in Federal 
politics and men of high character and honor would feel as 
they ought. 

Stephen Van Rensselaer doubted if any man could stand 
against the popularity of Tompkins, " yet the accounts from 
the country induce me almost to believe in your success 
... If you were the Candidate, our best characters every- 
where would be Candidates for the Legislature and with 
such men I think you could be of great service to the coun- 
try." But one voice urged against it, that of Gouverneur 
Morris. The governorship as Jay and he had made it in 
1777 was an office of some dignity, said he, but since 
Colonel Burr's convention in 1801 had cut it from a seventy- 
four to a razee it was not worthy of a first-rate man. King 
would leave the Senate with reluctance; he disdained the 
petty turmoil of state politics. He was at first indignant at 
the advantage that his friends had taken. Yet as in 1804 
when from highest motives he declined the nomination 
which would have drawn him into a conspiracy, so now he 
accepted from the same compelling sense of duty. If he 



I^o ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

could rally once again to public service the old aristocracy, 
dt was worth the sacrifices of his own ambition. After 
three weeks' hesitation, he accepted/ 

The campaign was conducted with much spirit. The 
Federalists reviewed the record of the war, and claimed 
that with all the promises and fine professions nothing had 
resulted but a hundred million dollar debt ; war had been a 
pretext to increase the patronage and power of the admin- 
istration. Heavy taxes and depreciated paper made up its 
legacy. The Peter Allen legislature was the subject of their 
bitter scorn; "that a Council of Appointment should hs 
chosen by the vote of a spurious member struck some minds 
with considerable force." The free negroes who had been 
the object of some Deiuocratic legislation on elections, were 
complimented and defended." Of Tompkins, the candidate 
of the Democracy, it was declared he had misapplied 
state funds in carrying on the war,^ while as to King the 
foolish calumnies of 1807 were all revived.* Charles King" 
as a commissioner to investigate the conduct of an English 
military prison had recently reported in a tone considered 
too magnanimous, and this was used against his father.® 

'See letters to him from T. Dwight, Hermanus Bleecker and others, 
J. R. Van Rensselaer, James Kent, Jacob Morris, W. A. Duer, T. J. 
Oakley, D. B. Ogden, S. Van Rensselaer, Wm. Henderson, Zebulon R. 
Shepherd, W. W. VanNess, John A. King, Gouverneur Morris, King 
Correspondence, vol. ii, pp. 502-522. Gouverneur Morris refers to the 
convention that took away the governor's exclusive right of nomina- 
tion to the Council of Appointment, and gave concurrent right to 
any Councillor. 

"See Addresses in Albany Daily Advertiser, Feb. 14, N. Y. Com- 
mercial Advertiser, March 18, April 10, 19, A^. Y. Spectator, April 24, 
27, 1816; T. Dwight to King, King Correspondence, vol. v, pp. 502-503. 

' N. Y. Spectator, Jan. 24, 1816. 

♦.V. Y. Columbian, April 23, 1816; National Advocate, etc., see King 
Correspondence, vol. v, pp. 529-534. 

^This was the incident of the shooting of the mutinous prisoners at 
Dartmoor, cf. (Charles Andrews) The Prisoners' Memoirs (N. Y., 1815). 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 



191 



In hope of catching votes from some Clintonians the Fed- 
eralists complained that New York had not its proper 
hearing in the capital at Washington/ But since it was 
rumored Tompkins would accept the nomination to the 
Vice-Presidency, and would consequently resign within a 
year, such support could not be hoped for. 

The Clinton interest will all be thrown into the scale against us 
[said "Field-marshal" William Coleman of the Evening Post]. 
At the same time they will, with Machiavellian cunning, 
probably aid our assembly ticket upon the cunning calculation 
that a federal Council of Appointment would prepare the way 
for reinstating Clintonians in office, by removing past incum- 
bents which they would not dare to do. DeWitt being chosen 
governor next Spring, according to promise, to fill the vacancy 
occasioned by Tompkins being elected to the Vice-Presidency, 
will come into power in due time and federalists, cleansing the 
stables the ensuing year, will make way for a glorious state of 
things which is to succeed at a subsequent election; a fine 
arrangement.* 

Though New York city went for King, he lost by nearly 
seven thousand votes through the state.^ " The federal 
party in the sense of a party aiming at political power no 
longer exists," said he ; " Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa 
Catoni." * 

Liberty is too dear to be voluntarily parted with [he wrote in 

* E. g. address in N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 10, 1816. 

''To King, April 21, 1816, King Mss., N. Y, Historical Society. 

It was hoped that Tompkins' opposition to the canal would arouse re- 
sentment in the west (Wm. Coleman to King, April 21, 1816, King 
Correspondence, vol. vi, p. 20) ; at least the Federalists were resolved 
to check frauds in that region which they claimed had prevented Van 
Rensselaer's election in 1813. There had been more voters in some coun- 
ties than the census warranted (T. J. Oakley to King, March 29, 1816). 

' N. Y. Spectator, May 8, 1816 ; J. S. Jenkins, Lives of Governors, p. 198. 

^ King Correspondence, vol. v, p. 530. 



IQ2 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

his discouragement, to Christopher Gore] and it must there- 
fore be gradually weakened by making the People jealous of 
its wisest and most sincere Defenders ; so that open force may 
in the end be used to destroy it. But why touch upon this sub- 
ject to you, who have so often and so impartially considered 
it ? We have been visionary men ... It has probably become 
the real interest & policy of the Country, that the Democracy 
should pursue its own natural Course. Federalists of our age 
must be content with the past. It would be most unworthy 
to affect to have changed our opinions. I would not suffer the 
self-humiliation & reproaches of the changelings, I could name, 
for the highest offices & applauses, that could be given them.^ 

The Federalists now no longer to be active as a party, their 
opponents were sure to divide; the Federalists would be able 
■' to assist the true interests of Freedom and of Justice by 
giving their influence to the least wicked Section of the Re- 
publicans." - Even Gouverneur Morris came to this opin- 
ion ; a few weeks before his death he wrote, " If our country 
be delivered, what does it signify whether those who operate 
her salvation wear a federal or a democratic cloak?"" 
The northern aristocracy had come to realize that old times 
were past. With their professed regard for the people's 
good they had joined a high indifference to the people's 
will. For appearances they thought that honest men should 
cherish no concern. It was permissible for them to oppose 
a war which would interrupt their shipping; it was per- 
missible for them to admire the English constitution; but 
when in their keen desire to see the administration wrecked, 
they celebrated the disaster at Detroit and ill concealed their 
glee at the failures of Wilkinson and Dearborn — was it a 
marvel that the body of the people came to think that the 
aristocracy were more British than American, 

1 May 8, 15, 1816. ibid. - To Edward King, May 21, 1861, ihid. 

* Diary and Letters, vol. ii, p. 602. 



MR. MADISON'S WAR 

And universal patriots grown 

Feast for all victories — but our own ? " i 



193 



It was clear that the party had no future; the leaders 
were discouraged by defections of two sorts. Many lesser 
chiefs had openly apostatized, renounced their creed and 
shouted raucous praises of democracy. These were visited 
with the ostracism of old friends. A meeting held in Wash- 
ington Hall resolved : 

That we are not disheartened by desertions which increase 
our purity more than they diminish our strength ; and that we 
can have no wish to retain in the circle of our friends, whether 
political or social, any person who is capable of finding in the 
power, the pleasures or the emoluments of office, an adequate 
compensation for the loss of his integrity." 

It was, besides, a matter of no little irritation to the leaders 
that many men of property and social station were beginning 
to shun the forum of political debate. The indifference of this 
class to official honor at the hands of a democracy had begun 
to be observed. They who had so eagerly petitioned for such 
preference when it was the king who was the fountain of 
bestowal, now gave up old aspirations and seemed content 
to choose as ministers of their government men whom they 
would never think of welcoming to dinner. " Whence is 
it," inquired Egbert Benson. " that the same thing which 
was so sought, should now, and by the same class, those 
desirous to be distinguished for their wealth and otherwise 
for their condition, be so slighted ? I leave this question to 
the learned scribe and the wise disputer." ^ 

'J. K. Paulding, The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle: A Tale of Havre 
de Grace (supposed to be written) by Walter Scott (N. Y., 1813), 
canto ii, stanza iv. 

'^N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 29. 1816. 

* Egbert Benson, Memoir, read before The Historical Society of the 
State of New York, Dec. 31, 1816 (N. Y., 1817). p. 52. 



CHAPTER VII 
Clinton_, Divider of Parties 

When in 1815 Mr. Clinton was turned out of the mayor's 
office, his prospect seeined completely dark. His numerous 
foes had read him out of the Democracy, his Federalist 
friends seemed likely to continue in their helplessness. 
Financially embarrassed as he was, and bred to no 
career save that of politics, poverty might soon en- 
force humiliation. His personal adherents were men 
of such reputation that they injured more than aided 
him.^ In the winter of his discontent he was accused 
of seeking, with the pitiful aspiration of a ruined 
man, some understanding with the Federalists, whereby 
he might be named again for President ; ^ but he was, 
in truth, too shrewd a man to take the major role in 
a fiasco. He managed to get himself put up as an elector 
and voted for Monroe and Governor Tompkins, both «.if 

' J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, pp. 399-400, 423-424. 

''Roger Skinner to Clinton, March 21, 1816, Clinton Mss., answering 
a challenge to prove a statement which Skinner was reported to have 
made : " With respect to you being a candidate for the next President 
of the United States, and of your having an understanding with the 
federal party for the attainment of that object, I have no knowledge, 
neither have I informed any one that such was the fact. It is, how- 
ever, true that I have heard the subject mentioned and calculations 
made on the probabihty of success by a gentleman warmly attached 
to you and who appeared resolved on the measure, and in his calcula- 
tions he placed to your credit all the federal strength of the Union, 
and although a professed republican, he appeared to regret that the 
federal [strength] was not greater." See also in ibid., letters to 
Skinner, Nov. 14, and to J. D. Hammond, April 19, 1816. 
194 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES igc^ 

whom he cordially disliked, to make a good impression on 
the Democratic party. He must if possible win Federalist 
support without offending his old followers.^ 

There was hope for Clinton because he could conceive and 
carry out great projects. He now organized meetings in New 
York and Albany to make popular the scheme of the canal 
that he and Morris had surveyed ; legislators were addressed 
in memorials, well-written and convincing, that bore the 
trace of his connection. Such a man could not be kept in 
Coventry. The Federalists, whose interests lay in great 
land-holdings and in commerce, came to him for counsel on 
the project he had made his own. The west was deeply 
interested; liberal-minded men throughout the state were 
glad to offer their support. The Tammany Society, or 
Martling Men, who worked against the enterprise because 
of its promoter, soon realized that they had made an error." 
An element of strength for Clinton was found in the Irish 
of the state. Old predilections had been strengthened by 
the decision of the recent mayor when presiding as a judge, 
that a priest as a witness might withhold the secrets of the 
confessional. ^ The immigration which had come from 
Ireland in the last years of the European war and since, 
despite the restrictions of Great Britain, made this support 
important.* It was clear that Clinton's star was rising; 
even his brother-in-law, Judge Ambrose Spencer, partly 
through Mrs. Spencer's mediation, now sought an interview, 
and a reconciliation was announced. ° 

The strength of Mr. Clinton, founded thus on popular 

' J. Emott to R. King, Dec. 28, 1816. 2 Cf. supra, ch. v. 

'J. G. Shea, History of the Catholic Church iti America, vol. ii, pp. 
165-167. 

* W. J. Bromwell, History of Immigration to the United States, p. 
13, note. 

* Hammond, vol. i, p. 430. 



1^6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

support, was more general through the state than in the 
legislature. In consequence the gentlemen who favored 
him to take the place of Tompkins, when the latter should 
become Vice-President, planned and carried through a Re- 
publican state convention held at Albany, with delegations 
from each county, the first conforming to the modern 
standard. This was preferred by his adherents to a legis- 
lative caucus of the party, because it was well known that 
in most counties which sent Federalists to Albany, the Re- 
publicans desired Clinton. These would have their word in 
a convention. Judge Spencer's influence was rightly 
counted on to secure the proper delegates, and Clinton was 
nominated, in spite of Martin Van Buren and the men from 
Tammany Hall ; ^ and though these recusants insisted on 
supporting Peter B. Porter of Black Rock," their candidate 
received less than two thousand votes at the election. The 
strong man with an idea had won his way from humiliation 
to the highest honor of the state. It was significant that 
Van Ness, J. R. Van Rensselaer, Jonas Piatt. Elisha Wil- 
liams and other Federalist leaders gave strong support not 
only to Clinton for governor but also to Clintonians for the 
legislature. The Ne7v York Evening Post declared 

In short, that in the western district federalism is abandoned. 
In explanation of their views, they say, that the democratic 
party having adopted federal measures of the Washington ad- 
ministration have thus reluctantly acknowledged these meas- 
ures were right, and that there is therefore no longer anything 
to differ about . . . The requisite capacity for government is, 
on all hands, acknowledged to be found in those who are about 

• Hammond, vol. i, pp. 436-444. 

■^This was Van Buren's policy, though other leaders of the old 
Madisonians objected; see E. T. Throop to Van Buren, March 15, 1817, 
Van Buren Mss. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES igy 

to succeed to power in this state . . . To say more at this time 
would not consist with sound discretion.^ 

In the summer of 1817, then, party prejudice seemed 
softening. The program of the Democratic Congress with its 
projects of the bank, the bonus bill, and the high protective 
tariff, was made up of Hamiltonian measures to be carried 
out in a Jeffersonian spirit. Federalists could not easily 
object; it was for their opponents to meet the charge of 
inconsistency.' In Albany as well, old Federalists found 
no little satisfaction. Clinton's inaugural address as gov- 
ernor, delivered when the legislature came together in Jan- 
uary 1818, attracted more attention than was usually 
bestowed on such pronouncements.^ The new executive 
was nothing if not bold in his conception of the duties of the 
state. He urged the generous support of education from 
district school to college ; agriculture and the arts should be 
encouraged by subventions; the militia must be drastically 
reformed upon new models of efficiency; the poor laws 
must be changed; far-reaching legislation with respect to 
banks was needed; the financial system of the state itself 
must be re-arranged. His most effective phrases were re- 
served to recommend his favorite scheme of inland navi- 
gation.* " To do " was the w^atchword of this leader now 
come to official power. The Federalist squires applauded his 

'See in A'. Y. Herald (edition of Evening Post "for the country") 
May 17, 1817. " In this State, after a good deal of jockeying & much 
of extraordinary coaHtion among men who have censured each other 
in the coarsest and bitterest language, Mr. Clinton will be chosen with- 
out opposition." R. King to C. Gore, April 17, 1817. 

- King to Gore, June 26, 1816. Gouverneur Morris had complained 
the previous year, that Calhoun and Clay went much too far. Diary 
and Letters, vol. ii, p. 595. 

' D. Hosack, Memoir of Clinton, p. 75. 

''Messages from the Governors [of New York] (Albany, 1909), vol. 
ii, p. 897 et seq. 



198 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



remarks on agricultural societies; land holders in the west 
and north beheld their friend in the champion of canals. 
The fact that Clinton was not considered orthodox by the 
Virginia School in Washington made Federalist support 
more natural and appropriate/ Opposition centered within 
Tammany Hall in New York city, and soon Clintonians 
and Federalists in consequence, issued warnings to the 
commonwealth against corruption from the great town by 
the sea. " A great commercial capital is seldom the chosen 
seat of liberty," they said in an address. " She oftener de- 
lights in the mountain fastnesses and in the cultivated 
plain." - The feud between " up-state " and " the city " 
was begun. 

Those Federalists who had worked for Clinton in the 
canvass of 1812, of course again declared their friendship. 
Judge Jonas Piatt exchanged most fulsome compliments 
with the governor, and worked for all his measures.'' Chan- 
cellor Kent and Clinton visited each other's homes and were 
on terms of confidential friendship.* Josiah Ogden Hoff- 
man was Clinton's firm supporter in the city, where support 
was needed.'' Thomas J. Oakley and the " Columbia Junto " 
— Williams, J. R. Van Rensselaer and Van Ness — were 
all Clinton men.® Troup as a law^yer found enjoyment hi 

^ J. Savage to Clinton, March 18. 1818, M. B. Tallmadge to Clinton, 
Jan. 6, 1819, DeW. Clinton Mss. 

- Address of the [Clintonian] Republican Members of the Senate and 
Assembly Adopted at a Meeting . . . April 4, 1820, pamphlet (Albany, 
1820). 

' Clinton's Letterbook V, Jan. 14, 1822, Fr. A. van der Kemp to 
Clinton, March 20, 1823, Jonas Piatt to Clinton, Oct. 4, 1823, T. Eddy 
to Clinton, Oct. 4, 1823, Clinton Mss. 

* DeWitt Clinton's Diary (N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll.), numerous entries. 

*Wm. A. Duer, Reminiscences, p. 27. 

•^John Duer to Van Buren, March 27, 1819, Van Buren Mss.; M. B. 
Tallmadge to Clinton, Jan. 6, 1819, CHnton Mss. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 199 

the governor's speeches, and as a western man he anxiously 
encouraged the movement for the canal.^ Cadwallader D 
Golden was his intimate correspondent.^ The Patroon, 
with whose family Clinton soon became connected by mar- 
riage, thought him satisfactory, though Federalism in Al- 
bany was quite strong enough to stand alone.^ The gov- 
ernor exchanged friendly letters on politics and agricultural 
societies with the Jays at Bedford, including many expres- 
sions of esteem.* William L. Stone, who had edited the 
Northern Whig of Hudson and the Albany Advertiser, and 
who took charge of the New York Commercial Advertiser 
in 1820, was among his most valuable supporters.^ 

But it was not the leaders only who took up with Clinton; 
much of the body of the party in the counties could be 
counted on as well. After 18 16 it was only in the ancient 
strongholds that Federalist candidates were presented under 
the old party name.*^ Elsewhere the faithful were exhorted 
to vote for the best man (provided he would stand with 
Clinton), and in many counties there was a frank and open 
coalition.' Clintonian and Federalist were often inter- 
changeable terms, and the word Republican was reserved 
for followers of Van Buren and his coadjutors of the 
Tammany Society.** Sometimes the factions which sup- 

^ Troup to King, Feb. 4, 1819, King Correspondence. It is true Troup 
deplored the necessity of supporting a Democrat. 

'^DeWitt Clinton Mss. passim, but especially Dec. 20, 1813. 

^ S. Van Rensselaer to Clinton, Jan. 6, 1819, ibid. 

*JuIy 27, 1818, Letterbook IV; Aug. 6, 1820, ibid., V. 

* " We have been attentive observers of Mr. Clinton's administration 
and measures," he wrote on coming to the city, " and frankly declare, 
that in general, both have met with our approbation," A''. Y. Commercial 
Advertiser, April 11, 1820. ^Albany Gazette, April 13, 27, 1818. 

''Albany Advertiser, March 31, 1818; Albany Gazette, April 13, 23, 
1818; M. M. Noah to Van Buren, July 13, 1819, Van Buren Mss. 

8 George McClure to P. G. Childs, Feb. 13, 1822, Isaac Pinson to 
Childs, Feb. 7, 1822, John Rugen to S. A. Talcott, Feb. 13, 1822, Childs 
Mss. (N. Y. Public Library). 



200 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

ported Clinton were combined under strange and startling 
names, like the " Low Salary Men " around Cayuga Lake/ 
Through the state there was no question where the chiei 
part of the old Federalists had gone. There were fourteen 
counties in the state which had voted for Van Rensselaer 
for governor in 1813. and three years later for Rufus King. 
In the hotly fought election of 18 19, eleven of these were 
registered for Clintonians.^ Yet even in this triumph, 
there were murmurings of opposition. 

When in 18 17 Clinton was carried to the state house on 
a wave of popularity, he might have stayed a universal 
favorite had he learned the arts of affability. He was 
formed to be admired and obeyed, but not loved. In the 
designs of his imagination he w^as a mighty architect, but 
he failed to take account of means ; he forgot that execution 
must depend on whims, on human loyalties and prejudices. 
He would not pause to make friends with men. A cor- 
respondent put the case concisely : 

And let me tell you, Sir, if no one else has the candour or bold- 
ness to say it (I mean among your friends) that the charge of 
a cold repulsive manner is not the most trifling charge, that 
your political enemies have brought against you — you have not 
the jovial, social, Democratical-Republican-how-do-you-do 
Suavity of a Root ; " nor the honied and cordial, or even the 
complaisant, manners of a " beloved Tompkins." * 

Judge Hammond, who long served him as attorney, writes 
that petitioners who came to Albany had declared that they 

* J. S. Jenkins, Lives of the Governors, p. 508 et seq. 
*See tables in Albany Advertiser, June 7, 1820. 
■''Gen. Erastus Root of Delaware Co., an Anti-Clintonian leader. 
*John Brennan to Clinton, postmarked Sept. 23, 1823, Clinton Mss. 
Another writes (ibid., no date) of Clinton's enemies: 

" Some of whom do accuse thee of being full proud, 
There's some truth in this it must be allowed." 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 201 

preferred to be graciously denied by Tompkins, to having 
favors granted by the bearish Clinton/ 

But his methods were as harshly criticized as were his 
manners. All deplorable devices which made New York 
politics a scandal were charged to his invention, because, no 
doubt, he was unusually adept in their employment. Rightly 
or wrongly, he was charged with having been the first to 
make public office family property.^ A hostile paper printed 
an elaborate catechism 

calculated to show the faculty of providing for a family in an 
elective government, by the discovery of a drop of Clintonian 
blood ; and how it qualifies a man for office or for any number 
of offices to the exclusion of his fellow citizens, whatever be 
their talents or merits. [Two samples out of thirty questions 
will suffice] . Question : Why is Pierre C. Van Wyck Recorder 
of the City of New York, (and) Commissioner in Bankruptcy, 
and why is his brother Notary Public ? Answer : Because his 
mother was the sister of Pierre Van Cortlandt, who married 
the daughter of George Clinton, who is the brother of James 
Qinton who is the father of DeWitt Clinton. Question : Why 
is Charles D. Cooper Clerk of the county of Albany? Answer : 
Because he married the adopted daughter of John Tayler, who 
is cousin of George Clinton, who is uncle of De Witt Qinton.^ 

His personal adherents who had followed him through lean- 
years of defeat were largely men of broken fortune and 
dark reputation, and it was generally charged that they 
retained his good will by playing a constant stream of com- 
pliment to satisfy his vanity.* It seemed to many that the 
leader confused the success of republican principles with 
applause of himself. 

' Political History, vol. ii, pp. 269-272. 

' Cf. H. L. McBain, DeWitt Clinton and the Spoils System. 

^ Poughkeepsie Political Barometer, April 24, 181 1. 

* Hammond, vol. i, pp. 399-400, 423-424. 



202 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

The great governor in his appetite for praise was not 
discriminating, yet he found peculiar satisfaction in literary 
fame. He was eager for distinction as savant as well as 
statesman, claiming fellowship as near with Aristotle as 
with Pericles. In 1817 the Germans had not yet preached 
the doctrine that scholarship to be respectable must be con- 
fined, and Clinton tried to run the range of learning. It 
was not by chance that his first biographer was a botanist, a 
physician and an F. R. S. and that the second was a pro- 
fessor of natural and experimental philosophy.^ The be- 
wildering diversity of his scientific interests is illustrated by 
his correspondence. People wrote to him of new varieties 
of meteors and new varieties of clams; they sent him 
drawings of ships that could sail sidewise, of mound- 
builders' remains, and of wonderful keyed harps; he was 
questioned on the arts of Athens, the theology of Calvin, 
the tribal dialects of Indians, blue clover and the recipes of 
cures for hydrophobia ; gentlemen whom he had never seen 
wrote careful and minute descriptions of their travels, 
others proved the earth was hollow, and one sent a " con- 
fidential plan for the amelioration of mankind " by means 
of a society.^ 

This last proposal was fittingly addressed to him, for he 
was at least vice president of all such enterprises in the state 
and corresponding member of nearly all of those outside 
its bounds. He delivered long orations before the New 
York Historical Society, the Literary and Philosophical 
Society of New York, the American Academy of the Arts, 
the Society of Phi Beta Kappa and many others.^ In these 
discourses there was some contribution to the several 

1 David Hosack, Memoir of DelVitt Clinton (N. Y., 1829); James 
Renwick, Life of DeWitt Clinton (N. Y., 1840). 
■■' These letters grow in frequency after 1817, see Clinton Mss. 
*See pamphlet collection in N. Y. Public Library. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 203 

sciences, but much of vain pomposity and parade of 
erudition. Frequently his illustrations and his classical 
quotations were traceable to common manuals and handy 
dictionaries. And there were graver faults, as we shall see. 
which critics who disliked his manners and the methods of 
his party management, were quick to seize upon. The 
societies, they said, which let themselves be gulled by such 
transparent fraud, were themselves fair butts of ridicule. 
It is not surprising that among these keen lampooners the 
most conspicuous was " Abimelech Coody," Gulian C. 
Verplanck. 

As Verplanck had listened to the mayor's stinging rebuke 
in the famous trial for riot, he had resolved to devote his 
pen from that day forth to the disgrace of Clinton. The 
coalition by which Federalists gave their votes to make the 
mayor President was abhorred by Verplanck, and he felt 
chagrined when Federalist councils of appointment retained 
this enemy in office. In 18 14 he wrote a series of attacks 
printed in a political sheet called The Corrector,^ but words 
were not his only weapons. The Federalist party, he declared, 
must be made clean of this defilement, and joined by Hugh 
Maxwell and the RadcHffes, who had been snubbed in ap- 
plications for the mayor's office, he published a schismatic 
ticket for the assembly. The " Washington Federalists " 
was the name assumed by the associates in this enterprise; 
but by the hostile Evening Post they were hailed derisively 
as " Goodies." Judge Spencer, then at war with Clinton, 
thought he saw some possibilities in this little party, but 
the ticket was supported by a few score voters only, and the 
movement toward a new party was for a time abandoned.^ 

In 181 5 there appeared another Coody pamphlet called A 

' W. C. Bryant, Discourse on Verplanck, p. 18. 

*A'. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 26, May 2, 1814; Hammond, vol. 
i, p. ,798. 



204 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



Fahle, wherein Clinton was portrayed as " a young Irish 
greyhound of high mettle and exorbitant pretensions." ^ In 
the Analectic Magazine Verplanck and certain colleagues 
described in an irreverent humor the publications of the 
mayor's learned societies, and ridiculed their members, 
whose long lists of honorary degrees, they said, were monu- 
ments of vanity.^ Although the author had no word of 
praise for Tompkins or his Virginia overlords, the Tam- 
many Society was much delighted by this round abuse of 
Clinton. 

The object of all these attentions had not the gift of 
silence. He responded with a Letter from a Traveller,^ first 
berating James K. Paulding, whose recent Lay of the Scot- 
tish Fiddle had contained some bitter satire on the friends of 
Clinton in New England."* Other writers in the group were 
then attacked, but the most savage thrust was saved for 
young Verplanck. This man (the letter ran) who had made 
his first exhibition in life as a rioter in a church and since, 
like Hannibal upon the altar, had sworn revenge w^n the 
arm that punished him. was now 

the head of a political sect called Coodies. of a hybrid nature, 
composed of the combined spawn of federalism and jacobinism, 
and generated in the venomous passion of disappointment and 
revenge ; without any definite character, neither fish nor flesh, 

' A Fable for Statesmen and Politicians of All Parties and Descrip- 
tions, by Abimeleeh Coody, Esq., Formerly Ladies' Shoemaker (N. Y.. 
1815). 

^Analectic Magazine, vol. iv (1814), pp. 349-350. 

' (DeWitt Clinton) An Account of Abimelech Coody and other cele- 
brated writers of New York: in a letter from a traveller to his friend 
in South Carolina (N. Y., 1815). 

* See especially canto ii, stanzas iii, iv, xi (note 9) ; canto iii (note 3) ; 
canto V. stanzas xvi, xxvi and notes 9 and 12. The fact that these 
young writers took remuneration shocked Clinton: "Almost in every 
other place men write for amusement or for fame — but here there are 
authors by profession, who make it a business and a living." 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 205 

bird nor beast, animal nor plant, but a non-descript made up of 

All monstrous, all prodigious things, 
Abominable, unutterable and worse than 
Fable ^ 

After the unkindest caricature of his enemy, the "The 
Traveller" described himself: "Mr. Clinton, amidst his 
other great qualifications, is distinguished for a marked de- 
votion to science — few men have read more, and few can 
claim more various and extensive knowledge. And the 
bounties of nature have been improved by persevering in- 
dustry."' Such self -appreciation would be beyond belief 
had not the manuscript in his own hand been preserved by 
the printer." After this performance he was, for a time, 
allowed to rest, for Verplanck spent the next two years 
in Europe.^ 

'Pages 12, 14-15. Clinton's unpleasant temper is revealed by his 
description of Verplanck, touching on physical pecuHarities, such as are 
by custom immune from the pen of satire : " When I saw Abimelech 
Coody, he arose from his chair as I was announced and did not ap- 
proach me in a direct line, but in a sidelong way, or diagonally, in a kind 
of echelon movement, reminding one of Linnaeus' character of a dog, 
who he says always inclines his tail to the left. This I attributed at 
first to diffidence, but I no sooner had a full view of him, than I in- 
stantly saw 

. . . ' the proud patrican sneer. 
The conscious simper, and the jealous leer.' 
His person is squat and clumsy, reminding one of Humpty Dumpty on 
the wall. A nervous tremor is concentrated at the end of each nostril, 
from his habitual sneering and carping, with a look as wise as that 
of Solomon, at the dividing of the child, upon an old piece of tapestry." 

That Verplanck deeply resented this indecorous attack is shown by 
his reference to Clinton as one who would 

" — sneer at crooked back or gibbous breast ; " 
see his Bucktail Bards (noticed infra), p. 134. and note p. 150. 

- I have not seen this manuscript, but Chief Justice Daly, in his 
Biographical Sketch of Verplanck, speaks of its existence in 1870. 

*On this journey he was accompanied by his wife, the sister-in-law 
of J. O. Hoffman. Mrs. Verplanck died in Paris in 1817. 



2o6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

So far, among the Federalist party, the active opposition 
to Clinton had been limited, for the most part, to literary 
men, but they were soon supported by recruits from among 
the politicians. J. O. Hoffman had supported Clinton in 
1812, and since that time had been a constant worker in his 
interest. Having been appointed recorder of the city by the 
Federalist Council in 18 10, and turned out by the wheel of 
change, he looked for restoration when Clinton came to 
power. But though the governor professed his gratitude 
for Hoffman's many services, the office was bestowed upon 
another Federalist. No fault could be found with Peter 
A. Jay to whom he gave it, but this did not solace the de- 
feated candidate who now joined the opposition.^ Several 
other Federalists were disappointed. The charge that 
Clinton favored Federalism would hurt him with old friends 
among Republicans, and the Council seemed extremely 
chary as to honoring the gentlemen of the " old party " 
even though their help produced Clintonian majorities. 
Most Federalists accepted this condition. 

Let us await calmly and tranquilly a better state of things 
[admonished " Senex " in a letter to the Albany Advertiser] ; 
talents and virtue will be certain to attract attention and gain 
notice. Gov. Clinton can scarcely be considered a free agent 
as regards those who have borne the name of federalists ; the 
least indication of even a liberal treatment of one of us is seized 
upon as evidence that he is turning federalist. - 

The Federalists were secretly welcomed by Clintonians, but 
exc^ for a few like Peter A. Jay, they were officially ig- 

*Wm. A. Duer, Reminiscences, pp. 27-28; A'. Y. Commercial Ad- 
vertiser, April 9, 14, 1819; A''. Y. American, April 14, 24, 1819. 

'March 11, 15, i8ig. "And would you," sarcastically answered a 
Federalist opponent of Clinton. " would you have Mr. Clinton subject to 
the possibility of incurring such a vile imputation?" A''. Y. American^ 
March 20, 1819. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 207 

nored. Yet the Goodies and their friends would have it that 
the party had been - sold out for offices by the Columbia 
Junto; the voters had been duped. Upon Oakley and his 
accomplices who hoped for personal reward, they fixed the 
name of Swiss, who fight for pay/ 

The final, formal break within the Federalist party came 
upon the question of the re-election of Rufus King as 
senator. When, with the assembling of the legislature 'n 
1819 the matter was considered, it was assiduously whis- 
pered here and there by Tammany men that King was 
favored by the governor, those artful plotters hoping thus 
by bringing in a Federalist name to spread unrest among the 
old Clintonians. Some who had criticised Clinton for in- 
difference to his Federalist allies relented on this rumor, but 
were undeceived when they investigated.^ The governor 
had not forgotten King's speech in 1812; even if he had 
determined to extend the patronage to others than Repub- 
licans (which he feared to do), Rufus King would have 
been most carefully neglected. The malcontents, led by 
John A. King, the senator's son, and William A. Duer, 
declared this was enough to establish Clinton as the very 
monument of perfidy and selfishness. Henceforth the 
Coodies had energetic friends in Albany. There seemed 
hope that some Federalists, who had been supporting- 
Clinton, would rally to their older leader, and Rufus King 
was nominated as an old party candidate. The Martling 
Men were glad to see the coalition threatened, and young 
King believed that he might count on some New York Re- 
publicans to support his father's interest; ^ but he was over 

'This name was first applied by Gen. Root in the legislature of 1819, 
see Bucktail Bards, p. 59. 

' Hammond, vol. i, pp. 482-483. 

* J. A. King to R. King, Jan. 14, 1819, and R. King to J. A. King, 
King Correspondence, vol. vi, p. 191. 



2o8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

sanguine; conditions were not ready for this strange alli- 
ance. As the Clintonians named John C. Spencer, the son of 
Ambrose Spencer, so Van Buren and his Martling followers 
selected Colonel Samuel Young, who was quarrelling with 
the governor about the canal funds. ^ The votes were taken 
on February second ; King had but twenty-eight, yet neither 
of his rivals had commanded a majority; the election was 
seen to be impossible in that legislature, and it was post- 
poned until the following year." 

Most Federalists took the outcome calmly and helped to 
elect a Clintonian council of appointment in hope of a su- 
preme court judgeship,' but some were not so tolerant. 

The manner in which the federal party [wrote John A. King] 
has been treated upon all occasions and most especially in the 
nomination of the Senator, by Mr. Clinton and his adherents, 
decided me never to give my support to a Council of his 
selection; not willing therefore to throw away my vote, and 
willing to bear my testimony against that gentleman's conduct, 
as well as to evince my disapprobation of the direction which 
has been given to the sentiments of the majority of the federal 
party by some of its interested and artful leaders, I voted for 
the Martling Council — Mr. Duer and Carman were the only 
federaUsts who voted with me.* 

But the Clintonian Federalists determining on a closer 
coalition were ready to excuse the slight on Rufus King. 
The Hudson Whig, which voiced the opinion of the Co- 
lumbia Junto, asked if a man who curried favor with the 
cabinet and justified the atrocities of General Jackson in 
Florida could desen^e the honor of his party.^ Oakley and 

' C/. Clinton Mss. during 1819. - Hammond, vol. i, p. 486. 

'J. A. King to R. King, Feb. 3, i8ig. In this hope they were dis- 
appointed. 

* Ibid., also J. A. Hamilton, Reminiscctues, p. 44. 
•^Quoted in jV. Y. American, Ma}' i, 1819. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 209 

James Emott of Dutchess County deprecated all the un- 
pleasant agitation for King. It was obvious that unity was 
past. 

While John A. King was gathering supporters one by 
one in Albany, his brother Charles — the ebullient Charles, 
surnamed " the Pink " ' — was planning out another enter- 
prise. Gulian C. Verplanck, now returned from Europe, his 
cousin Johnston, and some others of the same age and social 
station, joined with Charles King to found a newspaper. 
They were to call all honest men to their support, recreate 
the party of the talents and proscribe the venal Swiss, who 
had usurped the rule and maintained it by intrigue. These 
young men would not sit with their " hands folded while the 
character and best interests of the state are sacrificing at 
the shrine of a few profligate and ambitious leaders." ' 
Thus the Neiv York American was begun on March 3, 1819, 
a small semi-weekly sheet with large type, no advertisements 
and little news^ — chiefly editorials against DeWitt Clinton 
and his band of followers. 

Disapproving of the conduct of all parties in their native state 
[announced the editors] they will do their utmost to overturn a 
system of fraud and venality, and to rescue the character of 
New York from the disgrace, and its power from the abuses, 
consequent to the control of men, whose means are corruption 
and hypocrisy, whose ends are the gratification of their petty 
and selfish ambition. 

The credulity of those poor dupes who made up the Fed- 

' G. K. Schuykr, "A Gentleman of the Old School," Scribner's Maga- 
situ\ vol. Iv, p. 612. References to his manners and his conversation 
can be found in numerous entries in Philip Hone's Diary. 

'Charles King to Rufus King, Feb. 8, 1819. This letter is not puh- 
lishe<i in full in C. R. King's edition of The Life and Correspondence 
of Rufus Kittg, but was consulted in the King Mss.. in the N. Y. Hist. 
Soc. Collections. 



2IO ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

eralist majority, they averred was pitiful; even Clinton's 
major triumph, the project of the canal, was the legacy 
of Gouverneur Morris. Clinton was but " the step-father 
of internal improvement." He had scorned them as traitors 
in 1808, then flattered them in 181 2 and since. Now after 
gaining the support of many and again in power he refused 
to requite any of his obligations.^ 

The other Federalist papers, attached to Clinton's inter- 
ests, looked on with amused contempt. 

A little, meagre, drivelling, skewing Tammany paper [scorn- 
fully remarked the Albany Advertiser] has been got up in the 
City of New York, by a knot of scribblers, who consider that 
the universe rests upon their shoulders, and the state of New 
York is a foot-ball which they can kick about with their neat 
little pretty morocco pumps . . . We are told that Alexander 
Hamilton, the present leader of the Tammany delegation, and 
James A. Hamilton (another son of the late General Hamilton) 
are two of the editors. Mr. Barent Gardenier has declined. 
Mr. Hugh Maxwell and G. C. Verplanck, who we believe are 
both Tammany now, but who lately pronounced two Washing- 
ton Benevolent Orations,- we are told are among the editors. 
. . . The number of editors who conduct the American is not 
far from twelve or fifteen.^ 

The young editors resented all these charges of desertion 
to the enemy; they tried at first to be as independent of Van 
Buren as of Clinton. They desired a third party to which 
true Federalists might rally — the " high-minded descendants 
of the great men " — and put forth in March a ticket to at- 
tract such a following. But they were embarrassed by the 
applause of Clinton's foes within the Democratic party; a 

'A''. Y. American, March 3, i8ig. 

- Maxwell had spoken before the Hamilton Society, A^ Y. StatcsniaJK 
Feb. 26, 1814. For Verplanck's oration see supra, ch. iv. 
* March c, 181 9. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 211 

common enemy makes strange friendships, and the sympathy 
proved irresistible. It was not pleasant to go to Tammany 
Hall, for the sachems had been unwilling to join them in 
the fight for Rufus King, but it was inevitable. In April 
they compounded a mixed ticket ; a new coalition was form- 
ing.^ Throughout the state at the election of 1819, a sur- 
prising number of Federalists were chosen for the 
legislature. Yet the American was not sanguine that these 
victories would stimulate the party to self-reliance or that 
the trend toward Clinton would be checked. To co-operate 
with all opponents of the governor was deemed the editors' 
only course, since their own old partisans were so indifferent 
to their call. " Which side the majority of the Federal rep- 
resentatives will take, is, we hope, at least, doubtful ; 
although we fear honesty will be no match for intrigue."^ 
Clinton realized that some recognition now was necessary, 
and Thomas J. Oakley from Dutchess County, a Federalist 
leader in the legislature, was appointed to the lucrative and 
influential office of attorney-general. The Coodies and their 
colleagues were outraged; if Clinton was to win the loyalty 
of the Federalists by offices, why pass by the great King in 
February and pick out Oakley in July? " Answer ye timid 
creeping things, who fear the winter frosts, but whose 
activity and venom is warmed into life by the summer heats 
— answer if you dare." ' Anything that the Clintonians 
would do or could do, simply proved a signal for more 
acrimonious philippics. Indeed as one reviews the writings 
of these young gentlemen, he is irresistibly drawn to the 
belief that they hugely enjoyed these opportunities for 
plain and ornamental rhetoric, — for literary self-expression 
with Clinton taken as the theme. One suspects they founded 

* American, March 10 , April 7, 21, 24, 1819; J. O. H[offman] to W. P. 
Van Ness, Feb. 25, 1819, Van Ness Mss. 

^American, May 19, 1819. ^ Ibid.. July 21. 



212 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

their newspaper not so much that certain things should get 
done, as that they should have a chance to urge them in 
fair periods. Nor does this question their sincerity; 
youth in its egotism yearns to be of service, conspicuously 
and theatrically, but still honestly. The Verplancks, the 
Kings, the Duers, the Hamiltons, loved to do the service of 
unrestrained writing. 

A sample of their style, it is believed, will not be 
wearisome : ^ 

But quickly the election returns [of 1819] presented to the 
money changers a new and unexpected result : a return to the 
assembly of Federalists in number and character altogether un- 
locked for and unknown. It required the whole extent of the 
exercised talent of these versatile actors [the Clintonians] to 
adapt their language and their conduct to the new state of 
things. The old song of the absolute necessity of the dissolu- 
tion of the Federal party could no longer be usefully said or 
sung; without a flush of shame they resolved to chaunt their 
palinode. But as the reputation of Lord Bacon [Elisha Wil- 
liains?] was rank, and as the two other Bondsmen were not 
in sweet odour, the gentleman from Dutchess, the secret hand, 
was selected at the May term to sound the trumpet and beat 
the drum for the Federal muster; the ranks were thin — the 
service seemed not promising; and even among the known 
devotees of the Junto — among some of the enlisted lobby 
agents, the money changers, — there arose the voice of discon- 
tent, and a murmuring sound of dissatisfaction. It rang in the 
ears of the by-standers something like " point d'argent — point 
de Suisse." [But Oakley's appointment silenced all] ... . 
How idle it is to talk of words when Ecce homo — ecce signum, 
is an argument that speaks to the senses, and sets at naught 
the orator's art or the poet's power. Alas, Walpole, wert thou 
to arise, how wouldst thou weep to see thyself undone. Every 

^ American, May 19, 1819. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 213 

man with thee had his price: yet even Walpole never knew 
the infinite advantage of having his own proper person a stand- 
ing example, a speaking argument of the merit of recent works, 
and of the benefits of conversion. The device is ingenious, the 
effect ought to be assured, and the practice recorded. It is 

worth tomes of casuistry and volumes of newspapers 

Religious aspirants have no glimpse vouchsafed them of heaven 
but through promise and description ; but the rulers of the State 
of New- York work not after ancient models, nor by types and 
figures and words ; they point to the man, they show you with 
their fingers the cause and the effect. They scorn the coldness 
of a verbal description, and distrust the uncertain power of 
promise ; they put their seal of office on the forehead of their 
late convert and now proselyting minister, to give efficacy to his 
calls, warmth to his words, and point to his arguments. In the 
same manner the Justice [Spencer] that worketh unseen, and 
hath power and might for a day and a year and a season, points 
to his creature as the proof of his dominion: it is a sign for 
the times, nor is it unreasonable to expect from such a sign 
the gathering of both Jews and Pagans, the Clintonized Feder- 
alists and the unadulterated Clintonians. 

Where such duplicity could flourish was no place for 
honest men. The loyalties of the Federalists, they said, 
could not be sold; the faithless leaders and their dupes 
should be abandoned and the honorable remnant join with 
Clinton's enemies; men like Martin Van Bureii would 
properly appreciate their purpose and their service. By the 
middle of the summer it was generally known that there 
had been a thorough-going coalition between the Federalist 
malcontents and the sachems of the Tammany Society.^ 

There now appeared a pamphlet called A MartUng Man, 
or Says I tu Myself — How is Thisf,^ a satire which, with 

1 American, July 3, 14, 21. Aug. 14, i8ig. 

'^The series of letters comprised in this pamphlet was first printed 
in the -V. Y. Columbian in the spring of 1819. 



214 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



incisive wit like that of Abimelech Coody, presented an 
innocent inquirer to make the enemy absurd. But this was 
written by an old Clintonian, Pierre C. Van Wyck, with 
some revising, it was charged, by the governor himself.' 
It took up one by one the strangers who had been received 
at Tammany Hall. Josiah Ogden Hoffman was the first, 
it said, because he had not been made recorder; Barent 
Gardenier, Philip Brasher and some others had followed 
for like reasons; Richard Hatfield and the Hamiltons had 
been persuaded to come in by promises and flatter^', to gain 
the value of their names; Hugh Maxwell and " Gilley " 
Verplanck, who had hounded Clinton since the riot in 
Trinity Church, now tired of guerilla fighting had brough: 
their Coodies to the Martling army. William A. Duer and 
some others had joined with General Root, the old Madi- 
sonian chief, at Albany, " to go thorough in their opposition 
to Mr. Clinton." The Democrats of Tammany were eager 
to extend a welcome to all the apostates; these, they said, 
were true patriots ; whenever Mr. Bayard or General Clark- 
son said a word of praise for the governor, it was 
complained that such Federalists had purchased Clinton. 

But in the literary contest the Martling Man was destined 
to be far outmatched. H he (as well as Abimelech Coody) 
suggests successors like Major Jack Downing and Hosea 
Biglow, a rival came into print far more pretentious, who 

'The copy in the N. Y. Public Library is endorsed '"'by Pierre Van 
Wyck": see also The BucktaU Bards (see infra), p. 48: 

" Retouched and interlined was here 
A Martling Man ; 'twas sent by Pierre ; 
Hoping his Magnus would be willing 
To help the wit, and viend the spelling." 

See also ibid., note, pp. 73-74. He was at that time District Attorney, 
having been Recorder of the City of New York. He is described by 
Judge Hammond as poor and dissipated, but a man of talents. Political 
History, vol. i. p. 423. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 215 

recalls the Augustan age of Pope and Swift. Gulian C. 
Verplanck, with some aid from John Duer and from Ru- 
dolph Bunner, a politician and a scholar who had been at 
one time a trusted colleague of the Columbia Junto/ pub- 
lished in the American during 1819 a series of seven poetic 
satires on Clinton and his friends. Such v/as the interest 
they aroused that before the year was done, Verplanck had 
reproduced them in a volume of some two hundred pages 
entitled, from the ancient Tammany emblem. The Biicktail 
Bards." Possessing the urbanity and easy grace of the 
Knickerbocker school, replete with grave quotations from 
the lines of the ^neid, the Horatian Odes, Macbeth, Ab- 
salom and Achitophel, and the Dunciad, it was obviously 
written for an audience of cultivated men, in hoi>e, no doubt, 
of winning them away from Clinton. The satire of the 
poems is so apposite and sharp, that they might have been 
important in the history of American literature were it not 
that their allusions are so hopelessly obscure to all but those 
familiar with New York a hundred years ago. It were 
pleasant, were there time, to regale the reader with the de- 
licious foolery of Scriblerus Busby's Prolegomena, wherein 
the author with waggish impertinence pays respects to the 
critic Jeffrey, to Charles Philips, the Irish orator, and to 
Dr. Parr, the classicist, who is supposed to have sent a bit 
of doggerel, impressive in Greek transliteration, or to the 
excursus concerning the EAa<^ovepKoi — or Bucktails. which 
so cleverly pokes fun at the pedantic Clinton and his learned 
societies. 

'W. C. Bryant, Discourse on Verplanck, p. 18; J. A. Hamilton, 
Reminiscences, p. 42. 

'^ The, tail of the buck worn in the hat was adopted as the official badge 
in 1791. and the name "Bucktail" had been fastened on the party; E. P. 
Kilroe, Saint Tawmav.y and the Origin of the Society of Tammany or 
Colinnbian Order in the City of Nezv Yorl: (N. Y., 1913). pp. T14, T47, 
148, 164. 165. 



2i6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

The first poem portrays " The State Triumvirate," Chn- 
ton, St. Ambrose (Judge Spencer) and Fallacio (Judge 
Van Ness), and tells the story of an office-seeker, Dick 
Shift, who played to win their patronage by the demon- 
stration of his talent in hypocrisy : 

" ' Corruption ? ' True, his forte, his trade. 
And yet no word, no look betray'd 
His guilt ; but acts of baseness name, 
He was the first to cry out, ' shame '; 
Though prudent, doubting still the fact, 
The vice he blam'd, was vice abstract ; 
He held the maxim quite sublime, 
To spare the sinner, lash the crime — " i 

The hero is presented to the stern St. Ambrose, who is 
won by flattery, he is brought within the chilling gloom of 
Clinton's presence, and gains Fallacio's ear by cunning plans 
for a conspiracy. Verplanck deplores the fall of Judge Van 
Ness, who has been Clintonized — 

" O that a mind, 
Form'd to instruct or mend mankind. 
By noblest arts to rule a state, 
Or King's pure fame to emulate. 
By use, by habit, long deprav'd, 
To low intrigue should be enslav'd ! " 

— and sometimes in anger or in shame at the disgrace to 
which Clinton and his men have brought the state, leaves 
far behind the sportive vein of satire. 

There are three " Epistles of Brevet Major Pindar Puff," 
in heroic verse, sui>posed to have been written by the gov^- 
ernor's salaried panegyrist, whose confessions, inseried 
here and there within the fulsome flattery assmned to be 
enjoyed by Clinton, envenom the point of the poet's sar- 
casm.^ Clinton's vain show of his learning and the solecisms 

' Page 35. 

' " Of praise a mere glutton, he swallow'd what came. 

And the puff of a dunce, he mistook it for fame; 

Till his relish grown callous, almost to disease. 

W^ho pepper'd the highest was surest to please,'' (p. 140). 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 217 

of his turgid prose are subjects of the satire/ For one who 
valued himself upon his literary reputation, this merciless 
dissection of his masterpieces was doubtless painful, but tJie 
Major must go further to admit the plagiarism of his hem 
in 

" That fam'd discourse, of patches frain'd 
From authors. 

Quoted ? 

No, not named ; 
The stolen thoughts, the skill that suits. 
The art that ' pilfer'd tropes transmutes,' 
The passage chang'd, to nonsense leaning, 
Retains the words, and drops the meaning ; 
The flow'rs he seiz'd from Johnson — , 

Well? 
He caught the stalk, the blossoms fell ! " ^ 

He offers in a deadly parallel a dozen excerpts from the 
learned lexicographer and Dr. Clinton to prove the latter' s 
much too profitable reading.^ 

Of course the governor's fellow scientists like Dr. 

' " His skill in conch-shells, and his Indian lore ; 

Flis wondrous wisdom in our state affairs. 
His curious knowledge of the tails of bears." (p. 104). 
See especially the comment on Clinton's ineptitude in classical allusion, 
on pages 143-144. The author in a note thus characterizes CHnton's 
style; "His wit has a sort of partridge flight, always low, never light, 
gay or airy, or of long continuance, yet still with a good deal of activity 
and whirring vigor, as long as it is on the wing" (p. I73)- Tlie 
American printed an "account" of a paper upon "the Chntonian crab- 
apple, whicli is produced by a graft of the Pyram Toricum, or blue- 
light pear, upon the Malum Jacobinum, or Jack-Cade pippin. It was 
for this discovery that Dr. CHnton was elected a member of the London 
Cockney Historical Society, as announced by Messrs. Lang [of the 
:V. Y. Gazette], Lewis [of the Commercial Advertiser], and Spooner 
[of the Columbian]." 
" Bucktail Bards, p. 47; see also pp. 104, 131 and I55- 
"Pages 141-146. A reference to Hke borrowings from Hume and 
Burke appears on page 131. The Albany Argus accused him of 
plagiarizing Frederick the Great (Dec. 18, 1819). 



2i8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Mitchill, Dr. Hosack, Mayor Colden, and the rest, are like- 
wise cleverly lampooned as partners of his pedantry, and 
the poet then speaks 

" Of learn'd Societies, that nothing need, 
In every walk of Science, to succeed, 
•Save more attention, and some more expense. 
And some more learning — and a little sense." * 

Other members of the literary group, besides the Bucktail 
Bards, contributed good verses, as when Halleck's gentler 
muse, in Fanny, played 

" Around the many, whose exalted station 
Has been attained by means 't were pain to hint on, 
Just for the rhyme's sake — instance Cl*n*on." ~ 

To defend the governor a numl>er of his friends now 
sharpened their pens 

'Page 133, and note on page 149. This phase of Qinton is satirized 
also in a poem called The Pilgrims of Hope, An Oratorio for the 
Clintonian Celebration of the New Year, which appeared first in the 
N. Y. America7i, Jan. i, 1820, and afterwards in pamphlet form (N. Y. 
Pub. Lib.). The following quotation from Qiief Justice Daly's 
Biographical Sketch of Verplanck will be interesting: "'The Bucktail 
Bards' was at the time attributed to Mr. Verplanck, though it has 
since been supposed to be the work of several hands, and the names of 
Judge John Duer, and of Rudolph Banner, an active politician and a 
man of vivacity and wit, have been named as connected with him in the 
production of it. He was himself always very reticent upon the subject. 
When called upon, at the dinner given in the Century [Club] to Fitz- 
Greene Halleck, to respond to a toast complimentary to this satire, he 
evaded the question of authorship, but on other occasions implicitly ad- 
mitted his connection with it, but that was all. He probably felt (for 
he was not a man to bear animosities) that he had accomplished b}'- his 
production at the time, all that he had desired, and was willing to let 
the controversy end with the causes that had produced it " (p. 46). 

^This poem was published first at New York in 1819. See in 1839 
edition, pp. 7, 14, 18, 21, 27. In " The Croakers" published 1819 et seq. 
by Halleck and J. iR. Drake, there are many such references, see 
Poetical Writings of Halleck and . ..Drake (N. Y., 1869), pp. 255-362. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 219 

" Against those rude and foolish, angry boys, 
Who in th' American his fame assail, 
Daring against our country's pride to rail," ^ 

and none with more effect than Gideon Granger, who, after 
thirteen years as Postmaster-General, now Uved in Canan- 
daigua. In a pamphlet signed " Epaminondas " he pro- 
fessed unstinted admiration for Clinton and his efforts in 
behalf of agriculture and the Grand Canal." (He was him- 
self especially enthusiastic with respect to the latter project 
and had given a thousand acres as his personal contribution, 
though his ungenerous enemies would have it that the land 
was scarcely worth the taxes). ^ He said the governor was 
abused by small pettifoggers, extortioners and sharp prac- 
ticers at law, because of some most salutary measures he had 
carried through. He filled many pages with invective 
against Tammany. To meet the charge thac Clinton had 
appointed Federalists he told of those appointed by Madi- 
son himself, beginning with James A. Bayard as peace 
commissioner. Let there be no great concern as to this 
matter ; 

we have lived to see the federalists disband as a party, and in 
general retire from political strife. We have lived to see some 
of their bitterest leaders join the opposition of Mr. Clinton, and 
make the most vigorous efforts to excite your prejudices against 
him, while at the same time a portion of the more thoughtful 
and moderate have given an honorable support to the admin- 
istration.* 

Granger was too canny and too cautious in speaking of 

* Bucktail Bards, p. 132. 

'^ Gideon Granger, The Address of Epaminondas to the Citizens of the 
State of New York (Albany, 1819). 

^ Report of State Surveyor, 1863, N. Y. Assembly Doc. I. p. 99 ; Geneva 
Palladium, quoted in A'. Y. A.merican, Jan. 22, 1820. 

* Pages 28-29. 



220 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

the latter " portion," for they really constituted nearly all 
of the old party ; they chose to vote for Clinton rather than 
court humiliation with a candidate of their own number. 
Clinton had become the leader of the aristocracy, with a 
few conspicuous exceptions, and with this group Granger 
was at heart right glad to be associated. He had grown 
rich by the proceeds of his fire-lands in the Connecticut 
Western Reserve, and with money invested in stocks and 
bonds, as well as land, he now lived near Federalist friends, 
in a mansion " full of servants." ^ His three sons married 
into Federalist families," and one of them, Francis, became 
an able leader of the Whigs in the state and nation. By such 
evidences throughout the state, the firmness of the coalition 
was revealed. 

When the legislature met, in 1820. Clinton knew that it 
would now be folly to deny his Federalist connections; his 
private spite against Senator King he straightway swallowed 
and in an address to the legislature announced himself a sup- 
porter of King's election. The interest focused on the 

'Gideon Granger to Clinton, Dec. 13, 1820, Clinton Mss., As to his 
friends see article under his name in Appleton's Cyclopedia, checked 
with references to John Greig, William Wood in A^ Y. Commercial 
Advertiser, March 18, 1816; he left his affairs in the hands of Jonas 
Piatt. The author has examined Mr. Granger's will in Canandaigua, 
N. Y., and has computed that his property ran far above $100,000. 

* See J. Granger, Launcelot Granger ... a Genealogical History, Hart- 
ford, 1893. The eldest son, Ralph, married the daughter of W. W. Van 
Ness (see marginal correction in copy in N. Y. Pub. Lib., pp. 181-182) ; the 
second son, Francis, married a Van Rensselaer of Utica (p. 301) ; and 
the third, John Albert, a daughter of Amasa Jackson (p. 305). To 
check Jackson, cf. his toast at the Federalist banquet. New York city. 
N. Y. Comv.iercial Advertiser, Feb. 23, 1815. 

After Granger's quarrel with Madison, in which the redoubtable 
wife of the President was said to have had a share (see note to Pilgrims 
of Hope), he was attracted to Clinton as the champion of the north in 
the fight against Virginia domination within the RepubUcan party (see, 
for example, his interesting letter to Clinton, March 2y, 1816, Clinton 
Mss). 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 221 

Bucktails. Would they dare to flout their new alUes who 
wrote for the American, by neglect of their admired hero? 
Yet would they dare nominate a Federalist? Van Buren, 
Root, Young and others conferred with William A. Duer; 
all agreed that the P^ederalists had so far declined as a party, 
that he could safely be endorsed.' Van Buren, with the 
aid of William L. Marcy. the recorder of Troy, prepared a 
pamphlet in praise of King as a patriot who had stood by 
the President in the War of 1812.' And so, as John Quincy 
Adams recorded in his diary, "' King, who after 10 trials 
last winter, could not get so many as twenty votes out of 
one hundred and fifty, now came in by a unanimous vote 
of the Senate and all but three of the Assembly." ' This 
concession on the part of the Democracy was considered as 
another sign that Federalism in its old organization was 

dead. 

In a caucus of the party on the question of the speaker, 
Elisha Williains announced the policy of the Columbia 
Junto: " A committee should be appointed in behalf of the 
gentlemen then present to meet and state to the friends of 
Mr. Clinton that the candidate of their choice should receive 
the cordial support of the federal party." T. J. Oakley and 
others cordially approved. John A. King at last arose, 
confessing his amazement at such hardihood. A fair pro- 
posal had been made to name a Federalist ; it had been heard 
in silence by these once respected leaders. He announced 
his intention to vote for the Republican, or if gentlemen 
pleased so to call it. the Tammany candidate. He would 
never meet with Federalists again at the behest of the 

' J. A. King to R. King, Jan. 8, 1820. 

'Van Buren Mss.. Dec. 13, 1819, for draft. Cf. Albany Argus, in 
discussion, quoted in American, Dec. 18, 1819. and E. M. Shepard. 
Martin Van Buren (Boston, 1888), pp. 60-62. 

*J. Q. .A.dams. Memoirs, vol. iv, p. 517. 



222 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

wretched junto from Columbia County. He moved ad- 
journment; and thus came to its end the FederaHst party in 
New York.^ 

A few days later there appeared An Address to the In- 
dependent Federal Electors - which declared the party 
broken up ^ and even the ties of private friendship which 
had bound its members now finally severed.* 

It is, therefore, after deliberate reflection [said its signers] that 
we have resolved to unite ourselves, unequivocally, and with- 
out reserve, to the great republican party of the state and 
union . . . With republicans we entertain a deep-rooted dis- 
trust of the views and character of Mr. Clinton as a politician 
... He has endeavored to create a personal faction, and to 
surround himself with a band of low minded sycophants, and 
venal dependents . . . Let others prostrate themselves before 
their sultan, in humble adoration ; we mean not to enroll our- 
selves in the Janissary corps. [As to those Federalists who 
join with Qinton] we confess our inability to account for this 
union upon any other principles than mutual private interests 
of the parties. 

To this address there were some fifty signers, including, 
besides the young men of the American, such prominent 
Federalists as Morris S. Miller and Zebulon R. Shepherd, 
who had sat in Congress,^ George Tibbits, who had been 

'J. A. King to Charles King, Jan. 6, 1820, King Correspondence. 

^An Address to the Independent Electors of the State of New-York, 
on the subject of the Election of a Governor and Lt. Governor of the 
State (Albany, 1820). 

^This announcement was received with consternation and reproach in 
states like Maryland, where the Federalist party had some hopes. Rufus 
King was obliged to explain in letters to such objectors that conditions 
in New York were " very peculiar." 

* This threat of social ostracism had been made on the other side in 
1816, see N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, April 19, 1816. 

'•> Mention had been made of Judge Miller's importance in chs. ii and iii. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 223 

the candidate for lieutenant-governor in 181 6, and many 
who had served in Albany. Judge Hammond remarked 
that he believed that in the annals of political parties there 
could be found no like number of men of talent, wealth, 
social position and personal worth, so scattered through the 
state, who combined for a single political object and yet 
drew after them so few voters of the party, as did these men 
of 1820.^ Their reasoning was dismissed as silly. While 
everybody knew^ that most good Republicans disliked the 
governor because he would consort with the Federalists, 
these protestants withdrew professing their belief that the 
Federalists, as such, had disappeared. In their florid rhetoric 
they had frequently referred to themselves as " high-minded 
men." The opposition mocked them with their own de- 
scription; henceforth they were the " High-minded Feder- 
alists." 

Their efforts, then, met small reward. Particularly 
anxious were the sons of Rufus King to have their father's 
blessing on their enterprise, but though several times ad- 
dressed in terms affecting, but respectful, the seasoned 
statesman quietly refused to be a party to their plans. That 
he had a low opinion of the governor was certainly no 
secret, but he saw no cause to sow the seeds of bitterness 
between himself and Chancellor Kent, the Patroon, and 
Judge Piatt and others of his friends v/ho had joined with 
Clinton.^ He would not have it seem that Van Buren and 

Shepherd was a well known lawyer of Granville, Washington Co., see 
C. Johnson, History of IVashijigfon County, Philadelphia, 1878, pp. 
202, 206, and N. Y. Ckil List, 1882, p. 451. The name is variously 
spelled. Many of these men had attended the convention that had 
nominated King in 1816, cf. N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, March 18, 
1816. 

^Political History, vol. i, p. 529. 

^ He was no doubt influenced in this direction hy a letter from Robert 
Troup, March 22, 1820. Van Buren's letter of March 23 to the senator 



224 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

himself were trading favors. There were others of the 
old party who disliked Clinton heartily enough but could 
not bring themselves to vote for Tompkins, who was named 
for governor by the Bucktails. The Vice-President as gov- 
ernor throughout the late war had been careless in his ac- 
counts. The comptroller, Archibald Mclntyre, drew up a 
lengthy statement of his derelictions, impressive in transcrip- 
tions from the ledgers.^ The secretary of the navy. Judge 
Smith Thompson, was considered as a candidate by some 
Democrats, but to abandon the Vice-President would savor 
of disloyalty and he was retained in spite of criticism." The 
High-minded Federalists who had professed so nice a sense 
of honor, could scarcely all be won to Tompkins while his 
reputation bore this stain. For example, at a meeting of 
such gentlemen in Madison County, resolutions were passed 
disapproving Clinton and the Federalists in the legislature 
who had endorsed him. but likewise opposing Tompkins, 
and, as between the two. declaring their neutrality.^ It was 
doubtless these circumstances that made the schism less 
important. The majority of leading Federalists read the 
address of the seceders with boisterous derision. 

Whereas, the fifty-one higli-niinded gentlemen Iwrote ' Jona- 
than Old School " in the Albany Advertiser] . . . have ex- 
pressed a wish to be released from the federal party, and from 
all those who liave heretofore been their political friends, in 

is a model of courteous suggestion. John A. King's letters show 
dignity in disappointment; see especially that of April 13. Charles 
was less patient; see that of March 18. Wm. Coleman also earnestly 
but vainly sought King's active aid for Tompkins, see letter of March 11. 

" See especially (A. McTntyre) A Letter to Flis Excellency Daniel D. 
Tompkins Late Governor nf the State of New-York, 112 pp. and 
Appendix (Albany. 1819). 

'R. King to Van Buren, Jan. 31, 1820, A.';';;*; Correspondence ; Bennett 
Bicknell to P. G. Childs, Feb. 14, 1820, Childs Mss. 

*M. S. Miller to P. G. Childs. March 6; Bicknell to same. March 17, 
1820, Childs Mss. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 



225 



behalf of fifty thousand voters in the party 1 do hereby release, 
quit claim and discharge the above high-minded gentlemen 
from all allegiance, 

granting all right, title and interest to the Vice-President 
and his Bucktails/ 

It was believed that the break would not be serious out- 
side of New York city,- but there the Federalist friends of 
Clinton must be active. The Commercial Advertiser after 
observing that in the calm of the last four years the Fed- 
eralist freeholders had not deemed it necessary to give 
themselves political concern, now^ warned its readers that 
that time was past." At a meeting in Washington Hall, a 
motion to nominate an independent ticket was overwhelm- 
ingly defeated, and Clinton was endorsed with much en- 
thusiasm.* Elsewhere in the state old Clintonians averred 
that now that the Federalist party had been purged of 
noxious slanderers they were more anxious for a coalition.''^' 
Judge Van Ness declared that, " There is not now an influ- 
ential or respectable federalist who is not with us. The few 
few who have gone are objects of disgust and contempt." " 
The High-minded Men, or " Royal Party " as they were 
sometimes called, playing on the name of their chief lead- 
ers,'^ were said to have their hope of due reward; and. in- 

' April 21. 1820. 

''The Patroon to Sol. Van Rensselaer, March 7, 1820. Mrs. Bonney's 
Legacy, vol. i, p. 350. 

'April II ; see also Albany Gazette. March 20, 1820. 

*N. Y. Spectator, April 25, 1820. 

*E. g. The People's Ticket, For Governor DeWitt Clinton, etc., 
pamphlet (Waterloo. N. Y., 1820), pp. 7, 11. Undoubtedly written under 
the influence of Rlisha WiUiams, the founder of Waterloo. 

* To Sol. Van Rensselaer, June 20, 1820. Mrs. Bonney's Legacy, vol. 
i. pp. 341-342. 

'J. McKinstry, quoted in S. W. Williams, The Family of Williams, 
p. 14.3. 



226 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

deed, they evidenced but little self-denial in taking office at 
the hands of the Republicans. William A. Duer was made 
a regent and then judge, when the Democratic party came 
to power; ^ Hugh Maxwell was made district attorney for 
New York. George Tibbits and Barent Gardenier carefully 
negotiated tenns,' while Gulian C. Verplanck, John A. King 
and others were elected to the legislature.^ 

To all attacks the editors of the American responded 
with full vigor. Elisha Williams, T. J. Oakley and J. R. 
Van Rensselaer were riddled with what piercing epithets 
ingenuity could furnish.* but their largest ammunition 
was reserved for Judge Van Ness, an officer of greatest 
dignity among the Swiss. Throughout 1819 they branded 
him as an unjust judge devoted chiefly to the damning of 
his enemies, truckling to the powerful, and always ready to 
be purchased.^ In May they spoke of an impending revela- 
tion. " Like the sword of Damocles," said they, with stagey 
mystery, " it hangs over you. and but a hair sustains it; it 
will fall at a proper time ; till then we bid you a temporary 
farewell; ' we shall meet again at Philippi.' " ® The long- 
heralded exposure came at the last of January, 1820. It was 
then charged that Van Ness, with Williams and J. R. Van 
Rensselaer, had accepted a huge bribe in 1812 for their 
support and influence in chartering the Bank of America. 

'Mr. Van Buren to R. King, Feb. 2, 1820, King Correspondence; 
John Duer to Mr. Van Buren, March 27, 1819, and Van Buren to 
Joseph C. Yates, Dec. 10, 1822, Van Buren Mss. 

^Van Buren to George Tibbits, Oct., 1820, and B. Gardenier to Van 
Buren, Jan. 20, 1821, Van Buren Mss. 

'iV. Y. Civil List, 1881, pp. 304-305. 

*E. g., March 6, 10, 13, April 17, 28, May 12, 15, July 17, 1819. 

* March 24, 27, 31, April 14, 24, 28, July 24, 1819. 

*May 15, 1819. There were other hints as to what was coming, as 
for example in notes to the Bu/:ktail Bards and to Pilgrims of Hope. 



CLINTON, DIVIDER OF PARTIES 227 

The allegation was now direct and could not be ignored. ' 
The Bucktails seized upon it and General Root, their leader 
in the legislature, proposed a formal inquiry, which in spite 
of protests from Van Ness and fellow Federalists, was 
provided. 

Judge Hammond, who was then a member of the legis- 
lature, who later served two terms in Congress and made 
numerous visits to the English House of Commons, main- 
tains that the debate upon this question surpassed any that 
he heard in those more famous halls.* It was developed 
in Elisha Williams' deposition that his own enthusiasm for 
the charter had been stimulated by an offer of a very ad- 
vantageous loan to his bank in Hudson, but when war 
became more certain a higher interest rate had been 
requested. President Oliver Wolcott, of the Bank of 
America, for this consideration then offered Williams 
twenty thousand dollars, but the arrangement was con- 
tingent upon two good sureties being found to secure the 
loan. J. R. Van Rensselaer consented to be one, provided 
he was given five thousand dollars of the money paid to 
Williams. Judge Van Ness agreed to be the other, but 
with him there was no knowledge of the details of the 
contract or any word of compensation until about a year 
after the charter had been granted, when Williams insisted 
upon paying him a similar five thousand. The judge, then, 

^ Suggestions toward an investigation had been made by Alexander 
Hamilton as long before as March 9, 1819, see Albany Advertiser, 
March 10, 1819. 

'.V. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Feb. 4, 1820. iRoot claimed " public 
fame" sufficient to warrant such procedure, citing the case of Judge 
Chase. The Clintonian Federalists realizing that the inquiry was in- 
evitable insisted only upon a committee large enough to insure them 
proper representation. Van Ness replied to the charge, in Albany 
Advertiser, Jan. 29. 

' Political History, vol. i, pp. 522-523. 



228 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

in his efforts for the charter, despite all charges by the 
Bucktails, had jjeen innocent of any hope of personal re- 
ward.' On Williams' evidence he was finally acquitted, 
but the imputations were not soon forgotten, and his power 
in the state was much impaired.' Williams and Van 
Rensselaer by their own admissions lost much of their 
prestige, and the Columbia Junto did not again essay to 
play a leading role in politics.* Another testimony had been 
given that the political leaders of the aristocracy were not 
above the temptation to enlarge their fortunes. 

With these leaders gone. Federalists could no longer, in 
any sense, be said to have a party organization in New 
York. Although in some districts like that of Albany the 
designation was retained, the members of the fallen party, 
like the other opponents of the Democratic organization, 
were known as Conser\^atives or, more frequently, Clin- 
tonians. Henceforth, until he yielded to Van Buren and 
abandoned Adams, Clinton could command the votes of 
most " old Federalists," but hardly the same enthusiastic 
loyalty that had been vouchsafed to Hamilton and Jay. true 
representatives of their interests and their class. 

' A\ Y. Assembly Journal, 1820, p. 833: Hammond, vol. i, pp. 520-521, 
note; F. Ellis, History of Columbia County, pp. 91, 177-178. Before 
the arrangement in Hudson was completed, a fourth beneficiary had been 
added, T. P. Grosvenor, Williams' brother-in-law and debtor; J. A. 
Hamilton, Reminiscences, pp. 48-53. 

^Dr. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer to Sol. Van Rensselaer, Mardi i, 1820, 
Mrs. Bonney's Legacy, vol. i, p. 345. 

* J. A. Hamilton, in his Reminiscences, p. 54. of course exaggerates 
Van Ness' humiliation. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Property or People? 

It was a favorite tenet of the Jeffersonian philosophy 
that no law should outlast twenty years without revision. 
Change is so normal in the modem world, that in any fun- 
damental compact which elaborates the duties and the rights 
of man within the state, there is luck as well as foresight 
in the choice of words which will suffice more than a single 
generation. The constitution which gentlemen like Jay, 
Livingston and Morris had drawn up in 1777 to meet the 
needs of freeholders within the Hudson valley, did not 
content the workmen in the cities,^ who after 1812 in- 
creased in number, or the farmers of the w-estern counties 
who had taken up their holdings under mortgages with- 
holding title until final payment. 

In the three decades that followed the first census, the 
state of New York quadrupled in population — grew greater 
by a million — but more than four-fifths of this gain had 
come in lands that had been lately wrested from the Iro- 
quois." Enterprising towns, like Rochester and Buffalo, 

^ The workmen had been dissatisfied from the first ; see the petition 
of " Mechanicks in Union " given by C. S. Lobinger, The People's Lazv 
(N. Y., 1909), pp. 156-161. 

-See tables in H. L. Young, "A Study of the Constitutional Con- 
vention of New York State in 1821 " (unpublished, but filed in the 
library of Yale University). This dissertation (Yale. 1910) is valuable 
in its analysis of the social forces behind the parties in the convention. 
The earlier chapters setting forth the conditions of settlement are 
especially interesting. Cf. O. Turner, History of the Phelps and Gor- 
ham Purchase (Rochester, 1851), and J. H. Hotchkin, History of West- 
ern New York (N. Y., 1848), chaps, i and ii. 

229 



230 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

already challenged cities of the east for rank in trade and 
industry. Settling evenly from north to south, the counties 
west of Seneca Lake could boast a hundred to each two 
mile square, while the middle region, centering in Oneida, 
was now more than half as thickly peopled as the old colo- 
nial counties on the Hudson. Onl}^ in the x\dirondack 
country were there less than ten to a square mile. Since 
the second war with England, ever growing numbers had 
taken up the westward march; the traveler Bradbury re- 
ported in 1816 that wagons carrying the household goods 
of emigrants passed across Cayuga Bridge throughout the 
snowless months at the rate of four or five a day.^ 

The sudden creation of prosperous towns, and highly cultivated 
farms in the center of those forests, in whose solitudes, within 
a very few years, the Indian hunter pursued his game [re- 
marked another Englishman], appears rather more like en- 
chantment than the slow result of progressive efforts with 
which in the pld world savage nature has been subdued. - 

The city of New York had grown, chiefly in the " mechanic 
wards," ' from thirty thousand to four times that number. 
It was a new people who, in the last years of the second 
decade of the nineteenth century, demanded a revision of 
the constitution framed some forty years before. 

There was one reform upon which all disinterested men 
agreed. The men who framed the first state constitution 
had engaged upon a war of protest against tyranny, which 
throughout the colonies had had its agency in the executive. 
A governor was an object of suspicion, and the common- 

' J. Bradbury, Travels in the Inferior of America (second edition, 
London, 1819), p. 318. His informant stated that more than fifteen 
hundred had passed within the last eighteen months. 

'■^ Adam Hodgson, Letters from North America (London, 1824), vol. 
i. PP- 337-340. 

* J. Macauley, Natural, Statistical and Civil History of Neiv York, 
vol. ii, p. 89. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 23 1 

wealth would yield him power only with a niggard hand. 
He must not be allowed to fill the public service with his 
minions, and in consequence the power to name subordinate 
officers of state was entrusted to a Council of Appointment. 
By 1818 this body, chosen by the assembly, always on the 
strictest party lines, dispensed some fifteen thousand offices 
worth in fees and salaries more than a million dollars.^ 

" Before its witchery, of late, 

Our proudest politicians trembled. 
When the five Heads that ruled the State 
xA.round the Council-board assembled." - 

Often obscure men, raised to transient power by a chance 
majority in the assembly and flattered by a horde of office- 
seekers, they met behind closed doors and voted usually 
without a record of the ayes and noes." "If the ingenuity 
of man," the governor admitted in a later message, " had 
been exercised to organize the appointing power in such a 
Vv^av as to produce continued intrigue and commotion in 
the state, none could have been devised with more efifect 
than the present arrangement."' * 

To appreciate the standards of the public service under 
this regime, one must review the private correspondence of 

^ Governor Clinton's message of 1820, Messages from the Governors. 
vol. ii, p. 1019, and Carter, Stone and Gould, Report of the Proceedings 
and Debates of the Convention of 1821 (Albany, 1821). p. 297. The 
record compiled by Messrs. Wm. L. Stone, of the N. Y. Commercial 
Advertiser, and N. H. Carter, of the Albany Advertiser, with the help 
• f the stenographer Gould, is more complete than that by L. H. Clarke, 
pubhshed in Albany in the same year, .\lthough Stone and Carter were 
strongly Federalist in poUtics, there was no criticism of partisanship 
against their work. Their edition will henceforth be cited as Debates. 

* Fitz-Greene Halleck, Writings (N. Y., 1869), p. :i2T,. 

* J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. i, pp. 468-470. Judge Ham- 
mond was a member of the council in 1818. 

* Messages, vol. ii, p. 1043. He assigned this as the chief cause of the 
feculiarly malignant rivalry of parties in New York. 



232 ARISTOCRACY L\' THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

the members of the council. Special competence seemed the 
last consideration to be urged for an appointment : appli- 
cants were usually presented on the ground of party loy- 
alty, though indigence and bodily affliction were oftentimes 
remarked to touch those councillors of " philanthropick 
views." *' Please pardon the liberty I have taken/' wrote 
one applicant; " my poverty is the only apology I can offer 
for it " ; others asked for help against the coming of the 
sheriff.^ Candidates for town and county offices, of course 
unknown in Albany, were recommended, or, in fact, ap- 
pointed by local party leaders entirely without responsibility. 
This system cried loud for reform. The politicians with 
some reluctance joined in the demand, but neither Clinton 
nor Van Buren desired that the credit for improvement 
should go to his opponent. 

In February, 18 18, Ogden Edwards of the Tammany 
Society introduced a resolution in the legislature calling for 
a constitutional convention to provide a new arrangement 
for appointment.' Governor Clinton, hoping to control the 
council soon to be selected, against the advice of prudent 
friends refused to sanction this proposal.^ General Root. 

' B. Whiting to P. G. Childs. Feb. 24, 1822, and W. B. Jones to same, 
Jan. 10, 1822 ; see also letter from J. B. Pierce. Feb. 5, 1822, S. Beardsley 
and others, Feb. 27, 1822 (Childs Mss.), and numerous entries in the 
Clinton Mss. "As I have no business and cannot get anything of em- 
ploy here, although I would be willing to do any labour to make an 
honest Hving for my family — but find I cannot make a living here and 
am obliged to spend what little I have, I have reluctantly undertaken 
to write you to acquaint you that a number of my friends in the county 
of Albany induce me to apply for the sheriff's office. . . ." G. G. Vam 
Zandt to John Tayler, Dec. 18. 181 8, Tayler Mss. 

' A similar proposal had been made in 1811 ; cf. C. Z. Lincoln, Consfi- 
tutional History, vol. i, p. 615. 

^ A^. Y. Evening Post, Feb. 2, March 2, 1818; Hammond, Political His- 
tory, vol. i, p. 469. Some Clintonians anxious to forestall the Bucktails 
were ardently urging reform; e. g., C. G. Haines. An Appeal (pamphlet 
in N. Y. Public Library), and letter from same to Clinton, no date. 
Misc. Papers, Clinton Mss. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 233 

nothing daunted by rebuff, then moved further to revise 
the fundamental law by amendments to abolish the Council 
of Revision and to extend the right of suffrage.' Com- 
mittees of correspondence in the towns and villages urged 
on the movement; orators and editors reflected and in- 
creased the popular enthusiasm." Clinton, silent for a year, 
finally recommended a convention to consider the appoint- 
ing power, but the proposition was rejected; the Bucktails 
must have more.^ 

For many months the sachems in New York had hesi- 
tated in the matter of the suffrage; to qualify the landless 
in that city would be to enlarge the influence of immigrants 
from Ireland, and they well knew that Clinton had been 
popular among that class.* But that politician, agile as he 
was, could not safely ride two horses; he now leaned so 
heavily upon his Federalist support that he could scarcely 
hope to keep his hold upon the poor. The Tammany me» 
believed that they might win these forces to their standard 
by taking up their cause, while, if they proceeded with 
caution, they need not fear to lose the prosperous mechanics 
and shop-keepers.^ 

The re-election of the governor in the spring of 1820 
made it clear to all his numerous foes that his influence 

' N. Y. Evening Post, April i, 1818. 

'* Albany Advertiser, June 23, 1819; N. Y. Spectator, June 25. 1819. 

^ They demanded a thorough-going general reform, which Clintonians 
in the legislature for a time successfully opposed. .V. 1'. CommerciaJ 
Advertiser, Jan. 26, 1820. 

*G. Myers, History of Tammany Hall, pp. 67-68; National Advocate. 
May 10, 1817. 

^ In this they were not disappointed; "after 1821. the Irish meniber- 
bership and influence had become dominant, if the cordial toasts to 
Ireland's sons and the popularity of St. Patrick, who well-nigh sop- 
planted Columbus as a patron, may be ascribed to genuine sentiments." 
E. P. Kilroe, St. Tammany, etc., p. 145. 



234 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

must be destroyed by some far-reaching means/ Already 
the " high-minded " American had come out for a general 
convention ; now a meeting was convened in Tammany Hall 
and the policy determined. In September of that year the 
National Advocate spoke for the society, and the Demo- 
cratic press throughout the state echoed with a cry for 
wide extension of the franchise." When the legislature 
met in November to choose electors who would vote for 
James Monroe, the governor mildly recommended a con- 
vention for particular reforms, but the opposite party, in 
control, put through a bill providing for immediate election 
of the delegates with no limit as to powers.^ 

Clinton and the Federalists foresaw that a convention of 
some sort must be called ; the next device of their defensive 
tactics had to be postponement. If they could but delay 
the project for a year or two, the census of 1820 might be 
made the basis of apportionment of the delegates, and thi5 
would weight the influence of western counties where Clin- 
ton, as the protagonist in the movement for the Grand 
Canal, could count on much support. In the elections which 
would inter\'ene their party might be able to win back the 
legislature and the Council of Appointment. In case their 
prestige could be thus enhanced the bill might finally be 
drawn to protect those features of the old law which were 

' " They feel their defeat to the pith of their bones and the core of 
their hearts, but are recovering from their discovery and hope to revo- 
lutionize everything. . . . They talk of dividing counties — caUing a State 
oonvention — extending the right of suffrage — abolishing the Council of 
Appointment — districting the State for Senators anew — and many other 
schemes." C. G. Haines to Clinton, Alay 29, 1820, Clinton Mss. 

'A''. Y. American, March 13. 1819; National Advocate, Sept. 13, 1820: 
.V. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 2, 1820. 

* A^. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 13. 14. 1820, and A^ Y. American, Nov. 20, 
1820. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 



235 



SO esteemed by men of property/ Most of all they feared 
to lose the Council of Revision which the Democrats had 
destined for extinction. 

This body, made up of all the judges of the supreme 
court, the chancellor and the governor, had long been hated 
as the guardian of all old Federalist principles. While 
Chancellor Kent, Chief Justice Ambrose Spencer. Jonas 
Piatt and William W. Van Ness, as a majority, could veto 
any law, democracy might well complain. To save their 
power for a season the council determined now to use it, 
and with Clinton's acquiescence the Federalist judges re- 
fused their indispensable assent to the convention bill. It 
was necessary, they declared, that the people should cast 
ballots to decide whether a convention should be called." 
This objection, fantastic as it was, for no honest man could 
doubt the people's will, had in their eyes the merit of delay- 
ing the inevitable day of death. In their statement it was 
suggested, likewise, that the bill await the coming census. 

This was not the first time that the judges had denied a 
popular demand. In 1809 they had disallowed a bill for 
setting off new districts in the state; in 1812 they had re- 
fused permission for enlargement of the court (by a Demo- 
cratic Council of Appointment). They had checked the 
" war-hawks " in their drastic measures for conscription 
and the treatment of deserters. They had extended their 

^ " I am in favor of a Convention properly and fairly called, but not 
for one got up precipitately for bad purposes, under bad auspices, and 
with a view to shake society to its foundations in order to sustain bad 
men." Clinton to Henry Post, Nov. 25, 1820, in J. Bigelow, " DeWitt 
Clinton as a Politician," in Harpers' Magazine, vol. 1, p. 414. 

'^ Judges Piatt and Van Ness found it expedient to be absent ; conse- 
«[uently to defeat the Republicans, Yates and Woodworth, Clinton was 
•bliged to join the chancellor and the chief justice, and thus unmistake- 
ably display his colors. The objections are set forth in A. B. Street, 
The Council of Revision, pp. 450 ef seq. Clinton was no doubt anxious 
to prevent, if he could, a convention with general power. 



236 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

protection to the negro allies of the Federalists.' The coun- 
cil's temporary victory in 1820 but nerved the Democrats 
to fiercer resolution. Not only must the council be abol- 
ished, but every one of these aristocrats in ermine must be 
driven from the bench. 

The Federalist newspapers reopened the whole contro- 
versy. The Council of Appointment only, they declared, 
should be discussed,' and addresses were prepared by the 
conserA^atives throughout the state. '* Our constitution was 
framed by wise and patriotic men," said one written in 
Poughkeepsie. and it maintained *' that no alterations ought 
to be made, except such as experience had made absolutely 
necessary, that no wild plans of innovation ought to be in- 
dulged, [and] that party spirit ought not to be suffered to 
intrude." " John C. Spencer rose in the assembly to pre- 
sent a measure of delay, but, for the first time in a score of 
years, the house refused to listen to the reading of a bill.* 
Michael Ulshoeffer, of the Tammany Society, reported on 
the action of the Council of Revision, in which he showed 
how inconsistent were some members in this matter of pre- 
liminary reference to the people; but to speed the process 
of convention their principle was granted and a plebiscite of 
all who had paid taxes or performed some service to the 
state was decreed for Februar\^. 1821.*' The Clintonians, 

' A. B. Street, The Council of Revision, pp. 362-364. 

^Albany Statesman, quoted in the Albany Argus, Jan. 2, 1821. 

^ E. Piatt, History of Poughkeepsie, pp. 97-98, 3iO- ^t is interesting 
to see the name of Morgan Lewis next to that of James Emott amonR 
the signers. 

* He was joined in this movement by western men like Myron Holley 
and Samuel M. Hopkins, N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Jan. 13, 1821. 

* Ulshoeffer's long speech may be read in A. B. Street, op. cif., PP- 455- 
476; see also A^. Y. Evening Post, Jan. 13, 15, 17, 18, 1820. All free males 
over twenty-one, who paid taxes or served in the militia or in work 
upon the highways, were given the vote for this election. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 237 

to save appearances, were thus obliged to vote in favor. A 
convention was demanded at the polls by a majority of more 
than seventy-four thousand votes.' 

The campaign for delegates revealed how hopeless was 
the cause of the conservatives. The adherents of the gov- 
ernor assumed a tone of high disinterested patriotism and 
attempted, where they could, to have the nominations made 
without regard to party." Where this stratagem was not 
availing, they took the name of Independents.^ Matthew 
Clarkson, Nicholas Fish, Samuel Jones, Cadwallader D. 
Golden, John Wells and William North went to defeat in 
New York city, and Stephen Van Rensselaer, Ambrose 
Spencer, James Kent and Abraham Van Vechten to victory 
in Albany — all as " Independent Republicans " ! '' Only in 
Columbia, a county where the " syren song of French 
equality " had never yet beguiled the freemen, could the 
proud old name of Federalist be safely flaunted in the press 
and on the platform.^ Here the leaders warned against the 
passion for experiment and novelty that so marked the 
times. " Fluctuation," they averred, " in any system of 
government is a calamity." '"' 

But the Democratic papers pressed the issue of the suf- 

' A^. Y. Evening Post, May i, 5, 1821. 

* iV. Y. Commercial Advertiser, June 18, 1821 ; National Advocate. 
May 15, 1821 ; Batavia Times in Albany Argus, June 8, 1821. 

* Albany Argus, May 18, 1821. 

* Ibid., May 29, June 18. 1821 ; A'. }'. Commercicl Advertiser, June 20. 
182 1. 

^Hudson Whig, June 18-23, 1821. In Rensselaer County, also, the 
name was used (Plattsburgh Republican, in Argus, April 10, 1821), but 
here the ticket was unsuccessful. In Dutchess County a circular bore 
the name but it was sent out secretly. Dutchess Observer quoted in 
Argus, May 29, 182 1. 

* Address quoted in A^ Y. Commercial Advertiser^ June 18, 1821. 



238 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

frage to the front. " Publicola," in his essays in the Argus, 
defined the faith on this important question/ 

Why [inquired the official spokesman of the party] should the 
men who have had the good fortune to inherit property from 
their ancestors enjoy greater privileges than those honest and 
industrious citizens who earn their daily bread by the sweat of 
their brow ? ... As honest poverty is no disgrace, it ought to 
form no obstacle to the full enjoyment of our political rights.- 

But this free talk of universal suffrage stirred up unneces- 
sary opposition, thought Van Buren, and " apprehension 
that the rights of property would not be sufficiently guar- 
anteed." Selecting the Patroon as the most important land- 
lord in the state, he vouched to him through Rufus King, 
their common friend, that such was not the program of the 
Democratic leaders. Extension there would be, but not 
transcending all restriction.^ Thus reassured, the Patroon 
had voted for holding a convention, a circumstance which 
now each party tried to use to its advantage.* Some hoped 

'" Plain Thoughts on the Extension of the Suffrage," beginning May 
2g, 1821. 

^Albany Argus, April 24, 1821. 

' " The extent of his political influence furnishes a strong temptation 
to Mr. Clinton & his desperate followers to infuse into his mind the 
strongest apprehension. ... I have observed with much regret that 
those efforts have been in some degree successful, and am very anxious 
that Mr. V. R. should be undeceived in this particular, & knowing your 
friendship for him and his respect for you, I hope you will embrace the 
opportunity presented by his visit to Washington to converse freely with 
him on the subject." Van Buren to King, Jan. 14, 1821, King Corres- 
pondence. Note Van Buren's text in enlisting King's aid ostensibly to 
circumvent the dishonest Clinton. Before the letter is ended he vir- 
tually asks King to try to make the Patroon a Bucktail. Van Buren's 
own caution with respect to universal suffrage is illustrated by a toast 
which he proposed, July 4, 1821 : " The elective franchise ; existing re- 
strictions having proved to be as impolitic as they are unjust, it is the 
office of wisdom to correct what experience condemns." G. Bancroft, 
Martin Van Buren (N. Y., 1889), p. 67. 

* Hudson Whig, quoted in the Albany Argus. May 25, 1821. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 239 

a compromise might be developed in the deliberations ; the 
returns of the election, however, showed how meagre was 
the prospect of concession. The personal adherents of Mr. 
Clinton elected but three delegates and their Federalist col- 
leagues but thirteen, while the Democrats with one hundred 
and ten could carry their reforms to whatever lengths they 
might desire.^ There were many who now pledged " The 
Elective Franchise — The birth-right of every free citizen. 
to the enjoyment of which the law of nature and of nature's 
God entitles him." " 

The convention, meeting on the twenty-eighth of August 
in the assembly chamber of the capitol, proceeded to elect 
the " Farmer's Boy," Daniel D. Tompkins, now second 
officer of the United States, as its president. Escorted to 
his high seat opposite the doors, he could regard with satis- 
faction a body whose " towering majority represented the 
interests, feelings and views of the friends of democratic 
government." ^ In the end seat on his right was Colonel 
Samuel Young, whom Tompkins in the late war had re- 
Vv'arded with a place upon his military staff in recognition 

' The distribution of the Federalists and Clintonians elected was as 
follows: Westchester, i out of 3; Oneida and Oswego, 3 out of 5; 
Montgomery, 3 out of 5; Albany, 4; Columbia, 4; Schenectady, i out 
of 2. National Advocate, July 10, Nov. 16, 1821. The proportion of 
Federalists to Clintonian-Republican delegates was probably the same as 
that throughout the governor's supporters. " We felt that we were a 
mere handful of men dependent on the federalists for political exist- 
ence, . . . but I confess I thought the federalists regarded us as an in- 
cumbrance upon them; or rather somewhat as the rich man regards 
his poor relations who have been cast upon his charity, and whom he 
feels in honor bound to maintain, although the expenditure for that 
maintenance goes to diminish an estate which he has a right exclusively 
to enjoy." Hammond, op. cit., vol. i, p. 534. 

^ Albany Argus, July 6, 1821. 

8 The words of P. R. Livingston, Debates, p. 50. A large picture of 
the assembly chamber of the capitol of 1808 may be seen in P. A. Chad- 
bourne. The Public Service of the State of New York (Boston, 1882). 



240 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

of his trenchant satire on the FederaHst sedition. In the 
prime of middle life and inclined to radical reform, he could 
be counted on for telling blows against all institutions that 
did not square with the new philosophy.^ Two seats be- 
hind, there sat another stout reformer, General Erastus 
Root, much more renowned upon the field of politics as one 
who sought to break a lance with every champion of privi- 
lege. Forty-nine years old. he stood as yet unscarred by the 
dissipation that injured his good fame,- and ready to take 
up the battle in his gay and taunting way for all revolution- 
ary theories of politics or of religion.^ He would have 
graced the Mountain thirty years before in France. Behind 
him in the rear row and a little toward the center sat the 
third of this extraordinary trio, Peter R. Livingston, a phil- 
osophical democrat of considerable wealth, harsh and force- 
ful in his utterance and steadfast in allegiance to the prin- 
ciples of Thomas Jefferson. These led the mad-cap demo- 
crats of whom Van Buren said. " They thought nothing 
wise that was not violent." "* 

In front of Livingston was Ogden Fdwards, who repre- 
sented Tammany and the influences of restrained reform; 
with him the president, in looking through the rows, might 
naturally associate the venerable Rufus King, sitting but a 
few feet distant, now the moderate spokesman of " high- 
minded men," and then turn swiftly to the left side of the 
house where, in an aisle seat near the front, sat King's col- 
league in the national Senate, Martin Van Buren. blond and 
smilingly benignant, whose soft words and subtle indirec- 

^ G. B. Anderson, History of Saratoga County (Boston, 1899), p. S^f^- 

* M. M. Bagg. Pioneers of Utica; N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Aug. 
7, 12, Oct. 15, 1824; Misc. Papers, Clinton Mss. ; see testimony in Root 
vs. Editors. .V. Y. American. Albany Argus. Aug. 25, 1824. June 10. July 
4, 1826, etc. 

^ N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. Nov. 2, 1821. 

• Van Buren to J. A. King. Oct. 28, 1821, King Correspondence. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 



241 



tions had charmed his way to leadership. No obstruction 
of the enemy would escape his notice, yet no vain enthu- 
siasm would betray him to intemperance in speech. Doubt- 
less Tompkins realized that here, and not in the stately 
presidential chair, sat the man whose prudent hand would 
hold the Democratic delegates in firm control.^ 

It was, as the president well understood, a delicate busi- 
ness. Although reforms might seem predestined by the 
June election, they would not be accomplished without meet- 
ing from the Federalists an opposition no less grim than 
skilful. As he looked upon that little company — less than a 
score of men, " commissioned." as a great historian has 
said, " to impede the onward movement to a government of 
all men by all men " - — he might well have suffered some 
misgivings ; for their talent was far more impressive than 
their numbers. In knowledge of the law, of history and in- 
stitutions, they outmatched any group of equal size that 
could be furnished by the Democrats. 

Midway down the right aisle sat the chancellor in the 
ripeness of his eight and fifty years, short in stature, but so 
vivacious and alert that in all the room there was no man 
less likely to be overlooked. He had come resolved to dedi- 
cate his learning in political science, gleaned from tireless 
study of the ancient classics and the works of modern com- 
mentators, to the task of saving for posterity those prin- 
ciples and practices which had been tried and sanctified by 
time. The aptest pupil of Judge Egbert Benson, he had 
surpassed his master in determination to defend the old 
dominion of the wise and good.^ Three seats from Kent, 

' Van Buren's county, Columbia, being inveterately Federalist, he was 
elected by Otsego County. 

* George Bancroft, Martin Van Burcn, p. 66. 

^ J. Duer. Discourse on James Kent (N. Y.. 1847). pp. 9. 7?>'- Wm. 
Kent. Memoir of Chancellor Kent (Boston, 1898), p. 178. 



242 

looking toward the left, there sat the Patroon, younger by 
two years than the chancellor and more fine of feature. 
He w^as not accounted eloquent, but his probity and public 
spirit, universally acknowledged, might so weight his simple 
word as to outbalance the most labored rhetoric of many 
an opponent. 

In that same row, exactly in the center, towered the form 
of Chief Justice Ambrose Spencer, master of the law, some- 
what supercilious in his deportment, and suspicious of 
political reformers. No man in the assemblage could cow 
this august person, and none there could convince him of 
an error in his logic; no man of small experience might 
safety challenge him in a debate. Sitting at his right was 
his associate upon the bench, William W, Van Ness, whose 
brilliant, penetrating mind and ready wit have been re- 
marked by readers of these pages ; and beside Van Ness, his 
old friend, Elisha Williams, still " the most celebrated jury 
lawyer in the state and probably in the Union," inventive in 
conception, rounded and graceful in utterance, fertile and 
copious in diction, though now smirched in reputation and 
discounted by many of his hearers as too clever to be great. ^ 
Some seats further to the left side of the house was J. R. 
Van Rensselaer, their colleague from Columbia County, and 
on his right Judge Piatt, then fifty-two years old, pious, 
honest and intensely serious in his effort to check the ravages 
of demagogues." The president might turn away from such 
a row where clustered his opponents, but looking toward 
the rear he could not fail to recognize the formidable Abra- 

' On Williams, besides the references in chapters ii and vii, supra, see 
Levi Beardsley, Reminiscences, pp. 208-210; W. A. Butler. Martin Van 
Buren (N. Y., 1862), pp. lo-ii. The Albany Argus, May 25, 1821, had 
paid its respects to Williams " of bonus memory." 

■■' W. J. Bacon, Early Bar of Oneida (Utica, 1876) ; J. D. Hammond, 
Political History, vol. i, p. 279. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 243 

ham Van Vechten, " full of solid learning and solid sense," 
but with all the horror of a good Low Dutchman at any 
innovations whatsoever.^ What has been said of conserva- 
tives in general, might be observed of him, that " his pigmy 
hope that life would some day become somewhat better, 
punily shivered by the side of his gigantic conviction that it 
might be infinitely worse." - 

There remained two men of some importance in that little 
group, Ezekiel Bacon and Peter A. Jay, both born in Inde- 
pendence year. The former has not figured in our narra- 
tive; he had entered politics a quarter of a century before 
in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, as an ardent Jeffer- 
sonian, and had once regaled the citizens of Williamstown 
with so strong an exposition of his doctrine that the college 
students burned a copy of his speech as a public condemna- 
tion.^ He had served as an official under President Mad- 
ison, but upon removing to the Mohawk valley, being a man 
of enterprise, like Gideon Granger, he had struck hands with 
Clinton, planned to build a packet boat to ply the Grand 
Canal, and stood out against all policies of its opponents.* 
As to Peter A. Jay, he was an able father's able son, in- 
heriting his political philosophy together with his personal 
integrity, and called his adversaries quite impartially " the 
Jacobins," though certain radicals were singled out for 

' D. D. Barnard, Discourse on Ambrose Spencer, p. 24, and J. D. Ham- 
mond, vol. i, p. 456. 

^ Morley's Voltaire. 

'E. Bacon, An Oration . . . at irHliamstomi, July 4, 1799 (in N. Y. 
Public Library) ; F. B. Dexter, Yale Annals, 1794. 

* He was a noted lawyer, and though in debate " not ready or fluent, 
speaking extemporaneously with embarrassment," when he prepared his 
discourse " he brought ample knowledge, sound logic and clear intelli- 
gible statement." M. M. Bagg, Pioneers of Utica, pp. 395-396; J. Q. 
Adams in H. Adams, New England Federalism, pp. 243, 301, etc.; E. 
Bacon, Recollections of Fifty Years Since (Utica, 1843). 



244 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

special scorn.' Such a galaxy of talent might well cause the 
president to wonder if in numbers there was strength. As 
frequently in history, the conservatives had learning on 
their side.' 

It was not surprising that the Council of Revision was 
marked as first to feel the power of the people. The judic- 
iary, it was said, must be separated from the other branches, 
to supply the check demanded by the perfect scheme of 
Montesquieu ; " the old council had acted ultra vires when 
they vetoed laws as inexpedient; they should have passed 
on constitutionality alone.* But the chief reproach was 
founded on their FederaHsm and their arrogant attempts 
" to stay the march of progress." Opposition to the will 
of the majority was hopeless, and the council was abolished 
without a dissenting vote, though not without a protest.""' 

Judge Piatt reviewed its long career of more than forty 
years with the eloquence of deep sincerity: it had served 
the right without regard to censure or applause; its mem- 
bers had shared the frailties of nature, but " when," said 
he, "I see the axe laid to the root of the tree which our 
fathers planted, watered and defended, a tree which yielded 
much good and wholesome fruit, and has long afforded us 
shade and shelter, I confess, sir, that I witness its destruc- 
tion with no ordinar}^ emotions." * The chief justice and 

' P. A. Jay to John Jay, Oct. lo, 28, Nov. 15, 1821. Jay Correspondence. 
His home town had been carried nearly three to one for " no conven- 
tion." Debates, p. 679. 

' In number they were about one-eighth of the whole, yet in Stone'.« 
list of those who took important parts in the deliberations their names 
make up a third. Debates, p. 690. 

^ Tallmadge, Debates, p. 86. 

* Tompkins, p. 71. 

* Sept. 4, p. 47- 

' He warned his colleagues against those who applied their remedies 
with so little wisdom that " in curing one evil, they create others," pp. 
53. 56. Van Vechten also pronounced a eulogium, p. 83 ; see for Kent 
and Spencer, pp. 87, 89. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 245 

the chancellor also voiced a sad resentment at the slurs the 
council had received, but these threnodies were listened to 
with some impatience; the council was despatched, there 
let the matter rest. Some, like the president, would hide 
the wound by saying that it had been done in kindness to 
relieve the judges of these disagreeable distractions,^ but 
this was but a thin deception, for, as everybody knew, the 
judges were themselves to be cashiered. Others of a 
franker mind declared the action but a just rebuke to those 
whose characters deserved it." 

The moderate committee, which had discussed this ques- 
tion, advised that the negative be given to the governor, 
whose veto could be overridden by two-thirds of the legis- 
lature. Peter R. Livingston was for a mere majority. 
" Keep the power with the people," he adjured his hearers, 
" they will not abuse it." It appeared to him, he said, agree- 
ing here with Bentham, " like a solecism to say that the 
people would assent to measures which would be injurious 
to their own good." ^ In this he had the aid of General 
Root, who observed that 

in all ages, where free governments have existed, those have 
been found who would transfer to the minister or executive 
more power than was expedient for the good of the people. 
This tends to perpetuate the aristocracy which exists in the 
constitution, and instead of being fostered, should receive the 
firm opposition of those who advocate the cause of the people."* 

Tompkins, the president, believed that no negative was 
necessar}^ " There can be no use for a veto on the passing 

' Tompkins, p. 81. 

"^ Root, quoted p. 85. 

■'' He desired a majority of those elected to the houses, not merely of 
those present. Twenty-six were finally mustered for his plan pp. 52. 59, 
116. 

* Pages 62-63, 100. 



246 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

of laws/' said he, " but to prevent violations of the consti- 
tution; and for this purpose your judicial tribunals are 
sufficient." ^ The conservatives, on the other hand, would 
use the power especiall}' in questions of expediency, but 
admitted that the plan of the committee was adequate if the 
governor were given a sufficient length of term to make 
him independent." Van Buren's *' moderate men " were 
satisfied and the measure was adopted. 

The " people's adversaries " ^ thus shorn of power, the 
convention took notice of the Council of Appointment. 
No one could say a word in its behalf. The wanton par- 
tisanship of the Democratic council which had sat through- 
out that very spring had disgusted friend and foe alike; it 
was abolished by unanimous vote* Following the spirit of 
the times, the committee on this subject recommended that 
militia officers, except the very highest, be elected by the 
men-in-arms. The Federalist press might argue that pop- 
ular elections would destroy authorit}^; ^ but what author- 
ity, it was replied, should be obeyed that did not spring 

' Page 79. Tompkins afterward proposed a separate council made up 
of lawyers but not judges. This proposition received no attention. 

' Bacon, p. 120. Mr. Dodge, of Montgomery County, took a middle 
position ; he proposed that the governor's veto be overridden by a two- 
thirds majority on constitutional objections, or by a majority on those 
of expediency, p. 116. On Federalist opinion on the governorship, see 
Spencer, pp. 47, 115; Van Vechten, p. 85; Kent, pp. 63-64. 

* The characterization of the judges is John Duer's, the "high 
minded " delegate from Orange Gjunty, p. 105. 

* B. F. Butler to Jesse Hoyt, Feb. 20, 1821, W. L. Mackenzie, Life and 
Times of Martin Van Biiren (Boston, 1846), p. 167; N. Y. Commercial 
Advertiser, March 31, 1821. It had swept out of office several men 
who had survived many changes, like Solomon Van Rensselaer, adju- 
tant general, Archibald Mclntyre, comptroller, and Gideon Hawley. 
superintendent of schools; for recorder of Hudson it appointed a man 
recently convicted of a felony. Hudson Whig quoted in N. Y. Com- 
mercial Advertiser. April 13, 1821. 

^N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. Sept. 22, 1S21. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 047 

directly from the people? Many civil servants likewise 
were to be elective, and cities were to choose their own; ^ 
certain officers of the state administration, like the treas 
urer, the comptroller and the secretary of state, were now 
to be selected by the legislature, while others, including all 
the judges, were to be appointed by the governor with the 
confirmation of the senate.' 

This last proposal introduced the question of the gover- 
nor's term. As a minority party, the Federalists had fav- 
ored the provisions for home rule, but their theory of 
politics led them to desire the executive to be as independent 
as was possible in his vetoes and appointments. Spencer. 
Kent. Jay. Piatt, Williams, the Van Rensselaers, Van Vech- 
ten and Van Ness, together with obscurer fellow-partisans,^ 
voted for continuation of the three-year term. At the op- 
posite extreme were Colonel Young. General Root, P. R. 
Livingston, and others who desired annual elections, fol- 
lowing that " great principle of republicanism — rotation in 
office." * Again Van Buren, always anxious that the party 

' P. A. Jay, however, warned the delegates of the danger of mob rule 
in cities, p. 391. 

^ The full proposal, which was in general adopted, may be found in 
Debates, pp. 160-161. 3,643 civil officers were left to be appointed as 
the legislature might direct, p. 297; only 453. out of the 14,943, were 
now left to the central appointing power, p. 162. The common councils 
of the cities were to select mayors, etc., except in New York, where a 
special electoral council was provided. General Root's amendment 
providing for election of non-commissioned officers is found on pp. 300- 
301. Justices of the peace were to be appointed by local councils of 
officials. Election' of judges, however humble, was not yet considered 
safe. 

^ E. g., Elbert Jones of Queens, Rhinelander of Montgomery, and Van 
Home of Herkimer. The last named, though not originally listed with 
the Federalists, voted almost consistently with the leaders, thus making 
their certain voting strength seventeen. The vote on the governor's 
term is on page 148. 

* Pages 148, 158, 547, 550; on one vote the single-year men were suc- 
cessful, p. 177. 



248 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

enterprise be not wrecked upon excess, came forward with 
a compromise : 

As we have vastly increased the power of the governor, a 
strong desire is manifested to abridge his term, and in this sen- 
timent I concur. But how abridge it? We wish the people to 
have the opportunity of testing their governor's conduct, not 
by feelings of temporary excitement, but by that sober second 
thought which is never wrong. Can that be effected if you 
abridge the term to one year? No, sir. ... I hope the blank 
will be filled with two years. ^ 

This provision was accepted by a scant majority.* P. R. 
Livingston, however, was still determined that the executive 
be curbed whenever possible. Still following Mr. Jefferson, 
he wanted it laid down in the constitution that the governor 
should address the legislature only by a written message — 
"the speech," said he, was "a relic of monarchy, founded 
in the love of pomp and splendour and show." ^ 

But it was the question of the suffrage which elicited the 
great debates of the convention ; it was held to be of more 
than l(xal or temporary interest. 

iVIr. Chairman [solemnly remarked a member], the friends of 
rational liberty in all quarters of the globe have their eyes fast- 
ened upon independent, confederated America; in the front 
rank of this confederacy, in the most conspicuous station, 
stands the great state of New- York, and the result of this con- 
vention will decide her fate, perhaps forever.* 

The discussion soon struck to the fundaments of politics 

' Pages 147-148. 

« Pages 551-552. 

^ Pages 173-174. General Root's motion that the right of proroguing 
the legislature be taken from the governor, was narrowl}- carried, pp. 
135-136. 

* E. Williams, p. 247. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 



249 



and government. Problems of sovereignty, original and 
delegated, such as puzzled Plato and Rousseau, were re- 
viewed at length by men who cherished theories as far apart 
as the poles. There were those to whom democracy was 
something more than a form of government — a destiny of 
perfection, indeed, proceeding " as uniformly and majes- 
tically as the laws of being and as certain as the decrees of 
eternity." ^ To these, man's right to rule himself appeared 
so natural and evident that instances and syllogisms seemed 
but impertinence. But there were others, whose fortunes 
we have traced for two decades, who declared this was a 
novelty to be received, if at all, after closest scrutiny. Their 
philosophy we may with profit here examine before the 
argument is broached. 

More than a century l>efore, John Locke had stated it as 
well as it is likely to be stated. When one reads the solemn 
judgment of that essayist that " the great and chief end, 
therefore, of men's uniting into commonwealths, and put- 
ting themselves under government, is the preserv^ation of 
their property," - one has the kernel of their thought. They 
believed that government by the wise and good was better 
than by the ignorant and vicious. But a larger proportion 
of the wise and good was to be found among the men of 
property than among society at large. Those who had it by 
inheritance had therefore more of leisure to acquire wis- 
dom and were immune from passions of cupidity, while 
those who earned it did so by the exercise of those abilities 
which might be serviceable to the state; ergo, government 
by the part was preferable to government by the whole. It 
might be urged that experience did not bear out this logic, 
that many men of property were indolent and unproductive. 

' This is the phrase of Bancroft, History of the United States, Amer- 
ican Revolution, vol. i, p. i. 
^ Essay on Civil Goz'erninent, chap, ix, par. 124. 



!5o 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



But to this it could be answered that these, though numer- 
ous, yet were exceptional ; it was better that some unworthy 
should enjoy the special privilege than to deny it to a class 
which as a whole would use it beneficially for all. In Amer- 
ica estates were not entailed ; ^ there was plenty of cheap 
land which able men could easily acquire to use for the 
benefit of themselves and of society. Possession of prop- 
erty might here, certainly, be called a proper test of talent. 
Locke had said that men possessed of propert}^ must have 
despotic power over those who were not ; - Elisha Williams 
now explained that those in whose hands sovereignty was 
lodged were trustees for the rest.^ 

It was natural that such men should be satisfied with the 
old constitution which limited the franchise to those who 
held the requisite amount of real estate or rented tenements 
of a considerable value. The old system had worked well, 
they said; the state had grown in business and in popula- 
tion.^ Was it, then, the " part of wisdom to substitute ex- 
periment for experience?"'^ Gentlemen were warned of 
" doubtful and dangerous innovations." " The delegates 
were there " convened to amend their constitution, not to 
destroy it." ^ Talk of social evolution showed a shallow 
understanding; " man has been," said J. R. Van Rensselaer. 
" and probably always will be, subject to the same passions 
and feelings, and under like circumstances the future will 

' Entails were prohibited in New York by an act of July 12, 1782; see 
Consolidated Laws of the State of New York (1909), vol. iv. pp. 3379- 
3380. 

- Works (edition of I750, vol. ii. p. 217. 

•' Debates, p. 248. 

* Kent, pp. 219-220. 

* Van Vechten, p. 230. 

* Van Ness, p. 266. 

■' E. Williams, p. 252. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 



^51 



strongl}- resemble the past." ^ But the majority were not 
impressed with these sententious sayings. 

The committee on the suffrage reported for a very hberal 
extension; every white male citizen twenty-one years old, 
who had resided for six months within his district and paid 
taxes, or on assessment had performed some work upon the 
public roads, or had been enrolled in the militia, might vote 
for any officer elected by the people." The chairman, Mr. 
Sanford, declared that this was what the electors had ex- 
pected. The chancellor, however, voiced the protest of con- 
servatives : 

I cannot but think the considerate men who have studied the 
history of republics, or are read in lessons of experience, must 
look with concern upon our apparent disposition to vibrate 
from a well-balanced government to the extremes of demo- 
cratic doctrines. Such a proposition as that contained in the 
report, at the distance of ten years past, would have struck the 
public mind with astonishment and terror.-^ 

Yet everyone was well aware that much had happened in the 
last ten years. Chief Justice Spencer, hoping that a rem- 
nant might be saved, now offered an amendment providing 
that only those possessed " in law or equity " of a two- 
hundred-and-fifty-dollar freehold could vote for senators.* 
It was upon this proposition that the principal debate de- 
veloped. 

Although the holding specified was left unchanged, there 
was one element of novelty. Since the canal had actually 

* Page 364. Compare J. R. Van Rensselaer's opinion of the French 
Revolution (p. 363) with that of P. R. Livingston (p. 224). 

^ Page 134. This is substantially the provision finally adopted, except 
that the new constitution required one years residence within the state, 
p. 661. 

' Page 219. 

♦ Page 215. 



252 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

been begun, the west was turning rapidly to Clinton; but 
under the old constitution many in those counties were not 
yet enfranchised. It was the custom there, especially upon 
the Holland patent and the Pulteney estate, to purchase 
land on long-term contracts wherein the title did not pass 
until the entire obligation was fulfilled.^ Spencer now pro- 
posed that all holders who had invested the required sum in 
payments or improvements should be allowed the special 
senatorial franchise : " they ought thus to vote, because 
they represent portions of the soil, and because they have 
that attachment to the preservation of all the rights incident 
to real estate." " Other Federalists came forward to praise 
this feature of the proposition. EHsha Williams declared 
his own opinion that this injustice might have easily been 
remedied by a declaratory act of the legislature bringing 
such equity within the definition of a freehold ; but this sen- 
sible suggestion, he complained, had been unheeded by the 
Democrats, who would not stop with moderate reform. 
He believed that thirty thousand votes for the convention 
were referable to this cause alone. ^ Ji-idge Van Ness could 
not agree with Williams as to what might have been accom- 

' This was true, likewise, in the case of settlers on the Hornby and 
(he McComb pvirchases. The contrast between east and west in this 
respect was striking. In some counties of the older region, like Rock- 
land, Richmond and Suffolk, the majority of adult males who would 
be qualified by the committee, possessed a two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar 
freehold, and in most others, such as Westchester, Ulster, Washington, 
Saratoga, Montgomery, Schoharie, etc., the number was nearly half. 
In the west, however, the ratio was low. A few counties may serve as 
examples: Allegany, 325: 1797; Chautauqua, 629: 2266; Niagara, 276: 
1421 ; Genesee, 1813 : 6517; Livingston, 1086: 2420; Monroe. 1737 : 3972; 
Ontario, 4399: 7055, etc. In the state there were 100,839 who could 
qualify under Spencer's provision and 159,262, admitted by the com- 
mittee, who could not; see tables in Albany Argus, August 12, 1826. 

^ Spencer, p. 216. 

^ Page 247 et seq. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 



^53 



plished by a simple law, but he heartily approved the amend- 
ment which was now proposed, and pointed out how bene- 
ficial it would likewise be to those respectable citizens who 
held the almost endless leaseholds of Trinity Church in New 
York city.^ Spencer pressed his measure as in accordance 
with the purpose of the founders of the state. The senate 
had been entrusted with the guardianship of property. Why 
have two houses if they did not represent two diverse in- 
terests ? ' 

To the defense of the amendment in general there came 
an able champion. James Kent had fought throughout his 
whole career for the rights of the individual as distin- 
guished from those of the people."" He could never forget 
that he was " Lord Chancellor." commissioned to uphold 
true legal principles however unpopular they might be.* 
Yet in all that company, when he arose, there was not one 
to sneer. " When I recall the suspicions that then pre- 
vailed," wrote a delegate in later life, " and the censure in 
which others were then involved. I doubt whether a similar 
case is to be found in history." ^ No abstract can do justice 
to the grave and solemn eloquence of the chancellor as he 
pleaded for the old order on that September afternoon in 
Albany. It demands quotation in long passages, for so 
complete and so sincere was his defense that it touched on 
nearly every point that later was developed. " It was," as 
a member afterwards remarked, " an elegant epitaph of the 
old constitution." ® 

' Pages 265-266. These would he quaUfied hy the " improvement " 
provision. 

' Pages 216-217. 

•' Wm. Kent, Memoir of Chancellor Kent, p. 180. 

* Kent to Piatt, Oct. 29, 1821, ibid., p. 182. 

* John Duer, Discourses on James Kent, p. 69. He said that the case 
of Sir Matthew Hale possibly afforded a parallel. 

* Cramer, p. 237. 



254 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Dare we flatter ourselves [he asked, when he had painted the 
calamities democracy had brought upon republics of the old 
world] that we are a peculiar people, who can rtm the career 
of history exempted from the passions which have disturbed 
and corrupted the rest of mankind ? . . . The men of no prop- 
erty, together with crowds of dependents connected with the 
great manufacturing and commercial establishments, and the 
motley and indefinable population of the crowded ports, may, 
perhaps, at some future day, under skilful management, pre- 
dominate in the assembly, and yet we should be perfectly safe 
if no laws could pass without the free consent of the owners of 
the soil. That security we at present enjoy, and it is that 
security which I wish to retain. The apprehended danger from 
the experiment of universal suffrage applied to the whole legis- 
lative department, is no dream of the imagination. It is too 
mighty an excitement for the moral condition of men to en- 
dure. The tendency of universal suffrage is to jeopardize the 
rights of property and the principles of liberty. There is a con- 
stant tendency in human society — and the history of every age 
proves it — there is a constant tendency in the poor to covet and 
to share the plunder of the rich ; in the debtor to relax or avoid 
the obligations of contract; in the majority to tyrannize over 
the minority, and trample down their rights ; in the indolent and 
profligate to cast the whole burthen of society upon the indus- 
trious and virtuous ; and there is a tendency in ambitious and 
wicked men to inflame those combustible materials. . . . New- 
York is destined to be the future London of America, and in 
less than a century that city, with the operation of universal 
suffrage, and under skilful management, will govern this 
state. . . . 

Society is an institution for the protection of property as 
well as life, and the individual who contributes only one cent 
to the common stock ought not to have the same power and in- 
fluence in directing the property concerns of the partnership as 
he who contributes his thousands. He will not have the same 
inducements to care and diligence and fidelity. His induce- 
ments and his temptation would be to divide the whole capital 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 2-5 

upon the principles of agrarian law. . . . We have to appre- 
hend the oppression of minorities, and a disposition to encroach 
upon private right — to disturb chartered privilege — and to 
weaken, degrade and overawe the administration of justice 
[especially since the delegates are] already determined to with- 
draw the watchful eye of the judicial department from the pas- 
sage of the laws. . . . We stand, therefore, on the brink of 
fate, on the very edge of a precipice. If we let go our present 
hold on the senate, we commit our proudest hopes and our 
most precious interests to the waves. ^ 

The sentiment that property rights must have particular 
protection was general among the Federalists. " Life and 
liberty are common to all," said Abraham Van Vechten, 
" but the possession of property is not. Hence the owners 
of property have rights which, in relation to those who are 
destitute, are separate and exclusive." ^ Those should have 
a greater voice who have a greater stake in society, re- 
marked Elisha Williams.-'' 

They are the patrons of your institutions, civil and religious 
[added Judge Van Ness]. They build your churches, and de- 
fend your altars and the country of which they are the protec- 
tors. They erect your school-houses, found and support your 
colleges and seminaries of learning, establish and maintain 
your charitable institutions, and construct your roads and 
canals.* 

The chancellor declared again that life and liberty were sel- 
dom jeopardized; it was property which must be walled 

^ Pages 219-222. 

' Page 226. " Does it follow thence that a man who has only Hfe and 
liberty to be protected, needs protection to the same extent with one 
who in addition to Hfe and liberty possesses both real and personal 
property?", p. 227. 

* Page 252. 

* Page 267. 



256 



ARISTOCRACY L\' THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



against assault/ General J. R. Van Rensselaer conjured 
up the gloomy prospect of agrarian laws; the poor had 
ahva}'s coveted the goods of the more prosperous, and if 
they had the power they would gratify their criminal desires 
by a general distribution." 

When Democrats declared that the franchise was de- 
manded by the poor, Federalists became impatient. If they 
demanded thus what was not theirs, how long, if it were 
granted, before they would demand the property itself. 
" Sir," said one, " if it be just and safe to confer this right, 
it should be bestowed gratuitously; nothing should be 
yielded to this menacing demand." '^ " Are we jealous of 
property." inquired the chief justice, " that we should leave 
it unprotected?"* He was assured by Mr. Radcliffe of 
New York that gentlemen need not despair about the help- 
lessness of property; it would always carry with it an influ- 
ence quite sufficient for its own protection; to give it arti- 
ficial aid was to make it dangerous to other rights. If prop- 
erty must specially be represented, why should there not be 
two votes for the holder of five hundred dollars' worth, and 
twenty for a man who held five thousand ? Society was not 
a money partnership, but an association of all men for the 
common good.'' 

But it was freehold property for which the Federalists 
felt a singular concern. They assured their colleagues that 
here there was no danger of accumulation. Few estates 
would grow in size ; on the contrary, by the operation of the 
laws for regulating descents, the holdings would grow 
smaller. Landowners, representing the most stable and im- 

' Page 286. 
^ Page 2>6t>. 

* E. Williams, p. 254. 

* Page 218. 

* Page 22;. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 



257 



portant interest, should have a distinct weight in one branch 
of the legislature. Personal property might elude the eye, 
but theirs was always there, imperishable and immovable and 
ready for the tax assessor. It was because of this that they 
were called upon to pay a disproportionate amount into tlie 
public treasury.' When danger threatened, the landless 
man might swing his pack upon his shoulder and disappear 
from sight, but the yeoman and his son must stay, abide the 
draft and defend the state." They were the least dispens- 
able of all society: prosperity was bottomed upon agricul- 
ture ; its surplus products made possible the arts and the 
professions. Then, too, that ancient superstition that hon- 
esty is the peculiar quality of countrymen, was exploited in 
well-rounded periods. " Their habits, sympathies and en- 
dowments," said the chancellor, " necessarily inspire them 
with a correct spirit of freedom and justice ; they are the 
safest guardians of property and the laws." '' To hear the 
Federalists, remarked a Democrat, one would conclude that 
all rights were safe if thirty-two men from the sacred turf 
sat gravely in the senate. Knowledge or intelligence would 
not be needed if only they were chosen by the well-to-do 
landholders.* 

In another argument of the consen^atives can be seen a 
faint reflection of the rivalries in England; as in 1832 and 
1867,^ in the parliamentary contests, so here, was heard the 
warning that to qualify the landless would so increase the 
influence of selfish manufacturers as to create an aristoc- 
racy far more pernicious than that which it would supplant 
Single men employed in factories, and boarding here and 
there, would have the ballot: but. observed the chief justice. 

' Van Vechten, pp. 226-231. 
^ E. Williams, p. 253. 

* Page 220. 

* Cramer, pp. 238-230. 

* E. g., Anmtal Register. 1867. remarks of Lord Cecil, p. 90. 



258 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

under the pretence of giving the right to them, we in fact give 
it to those who employ, clothe and feed them. I appeal to this 
convention whether they do not believe that a man who employs 
twenty, thirty or fifty of these persons, if on the approach of 
an election he tells them he wishes them to vote for this or that 
candidate — whether they will not feel themselves obliged to 
comply with his wishes. That man who holds in his hands the 
subsistence of another will always be able to control his will.^ 

It was the influence of this kind of property so concen- 
trated, said J. R. Van Rensselaer (though one suspects him 
of a want of candor), that he dreaded as a source of evil 
to the state. - 

Mr. Van Buren, on the other hand, declared the old 
arrangement most unjust; when three-eighths of all the 
property in the state was personal, why should real estate 
be so specially favored?^ In rejoinder, Judge Van Ness 
affected to regard with dread the battening money interest. 
The lines were to be drawn as distinctly as between the 
sexes ; witness how parties were aligning on the question of 
the tariff.* Commerce and agriculture, he declared, must 
intrench themselves against the manufacturers.'^ As for 

^ Spencer, pp. 196-197. 

^ Page 363. General Root scoffed at such apprehension : a manufac- 
tory was real estate and was assessed as such for taxes; its owner had 
his interest in land and buildings, p. 223. 

^ Page 257. " Large portions of the people, many of them persons of 
great intelligence and possessed of personal property . . . were, so far 
as regarded the choice of these officers, practically disfranchised." B. F. 
Butler, Discourse on the Constitutional History of New York (read 
before the N. Y. Historical Society, N. Y., 1847) ; G. Bancroft, Martin 
Van Buren, pp. 86-87. Van Buren was not averse to a small property 
qualification. Debates, p. 258. 

* Page 267. 

* He was answered that if personalty were made a basis for the fran- 
chise, it would benefit the commercial interests, allies of the agricul- 
tural as much as the manufacturing. Buel, p. 243. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 259 

the holders of securities and money whom Van Biiren had 
commiserated, let them invest two hundred and fifty dollars 
in real estate, said Abraham Van Vechten ; ^ nineteen- 
twentieths of them had done so already, added Van Ness.^ 
But J. R. Van Rensselaer finally admitted that these inter- 
ests in New York state were not so disparate, and proposed 
a new amendment in which personal estate of the required 
sum was mentioned as alternative to freeholds held " in 
law or equity." ^ 

The Federalists found in the freehold qualification a 
stimulus to thrift. 

If you hestozv on the idle and profligate [asked Elisha Wil- 
liams] the privileges which should be purchased only by in- 
dustry, frugality and character, will they ever be at the trouble 
and pains to earn those privileges ? No, sir ; and the prodigal 
waste of this incalculable privilege — this attribtlte of sover- 
eignty — like indiscriminate and misguided charity, will multiply 
the evils which it professes to remedy.* 

It might be said, remarked Ezekiel Bacon, that property 
itself conferred upon its owner no talents and no virtue, but 
in this country, at least, " it was a safe and general rule 
that industry and good habits did, in almost every instance, 
conduct the man who practiced them to some moderate 
share of property." ^ As to those who failed, said Judge 
Van Ness, 

^ Page 227. 

^ Page 266. 

^ Pages 359-360. Van Buren confronted his opponents with a dilemma 
" If they [the dependents of the manufacturers] were so influenced, 
they would be enlisted on the same side, which it is the object of the 
amendment to promote, on the side of property. If not — if they were 
independent of the influence of their employers, they would be !-:afe 
depositories of the right," p. 26^. 

* Pages 253-254. 

Page 285. 



26o ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

by an irreversible decree of Providence, it was pronounced that 
" the poor ye have aWays with you." . . . But what was the 
character of the poor? Generally speaking, vice and poverty 
go hand in hand. Penury and want almost invariably follow 
in the train of idleness, prodigality, intemperance and sensual- 
ity. Was it not wise to discountenance these vices by encour- 
aging their opposite virtues ? ^ 

General Stephen Van Rensselaer, the Patroon, would not 
insist upon two hundred and fifty dollars as a minimum for 
qualification, but the payment of some money tax he thought 
quite indispensable;' he opposed the clauses which would 
qualify under road work and militia duty. Yet, responded 
Dr. Ross of Genesee, this proposition would leave unen- 
franchised many, if not most, of those the general had com- 
manded in the War of 1812.^ In that trying day, who 
came forward into service? inquired ex-Governor Tomp- 
kins. " Not the priesthood — not the men of wealth — not 
the speculators : the former were preaching sedition, and 
the latter decrying the credit of the government to fatten 
on its spoil." * Mr. Sharpe explained the importance of the 
militia clause to the constituencies in the city of New York, 
where there was no public work upon the highways.^ Gen- 
ral Root, always disconcerting in his frankness, revealed a 
cogent reason for the Democrats' support : " They will not 
vote for peace-party men, but for men who are willing to 
bare their breasts to the arms of the enemy. - . . Not one 
in ten of these young militiamen would vote for a haughty, 
proud, domineering aristocrat : they will vote for repuh- 

' Page 268. 

* Pages 183, 200. 
' Page 182. 

* Page 231; see also Cramer, p. 239. 
^ Page 359- 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 26 1 

licaiis." ' " The cry of aristocracy has been too frequently 
addressed to this convention," complained Abraham Van 
Vechten.' " I trust the old names of Aristocrat and Re- 
publican will persist," was General Root's response, " till 
the former shall be bound to the footstool of the latter." ^ 
Recurring in the Federalist argument, like the motif in a 
fugue, came the fear of New York city. While among the 
citizens of that community, they said, there were some who 
had as much of virtue and more of wealth, talent, refine- 
ment and acquirements in literature than any correspond- 
ing number elsewhere in the state, there were also those 
more ignorant, more wretched, more vicious and miserable, 
the instruments of any demagogue.* And these by immi- 
gration would increase out of all proportion. 

They have fled from oppression, if you please [said Elisha 
Williams], and have habitually regarded sovereignty and tyr- 
anny as identified; they are men whose wants, if not whose 
vices, have sent them from other states and countries to seek 
bread by service if not by plunder; whose means and habits, 
whose best kind of ambition, and only sort of industry, all for- 
bid their purchasing in the country and tilling the soil."' 

The chancellor and Judge Van Ness reviewed the city's 
growth and contributed their dismal prophecies.'^' Van 
Vechten said that the average of the senatorial votes under 
the old system in the wards of the metropolis was some 
four thousand ; the proposed extension would increase this 

^ Page 360. 
^ Page 372. 

* L. H. Clarke, Report of the Debates, p. 185. Practically all the con- 
servatives voted against the militia clause, pp. 369, 554. and the high- 
way clause, p. 554. 

* J. R. Van Rensselaer, p. 362. 
^ E. Williams, p. 252. 

* Pages 221, 268. 



262 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

by more than threefold/ The agricultural interest would 
be outweighed quite completely. 

But the radicals were warmed by their own oratory and, 
impatient of obstruction by these voluble conservatives, 
they soon advanced to more extreme positions. General 
Root brought in an amendment which would qualify the 
sons of those provided for by the committee," and Melanch- 
thon Wheeler, a member from Washington County, moved 
further to include all citizens who had been three years 
within the state, and one within the town in which they 
registered.'* In late September such confusion came to 
mark the voting that no man could prophesy what the next 
hour would bring forth. Certain Federalists like WiUiams. 
Bacon and Van Ness fanned the flame that had been kindled 
by the root-and-branch Republicans, and apparently were 
willing to participate in any movement that would run to 
such absurdity as to disgust the voters at the polls with the 
whole constitution.* " That gentleman," said Van Buren 
of Elisha Williams, "expressed a behef a few days ago 
that we had already made the constitution worse, and he 
probably would not regret to see us go so far as to have all 
the amendments rejected by the people." ^ 

One day the convention voted to withdraw the franchise 
from those who merely worked upon the highways," and 

1 Page 228. Of the adult males in New York city, 3.881 had a two- 
himdred-and-fifty-dollar freehold and 16.044 who would be qualified 
under the new provision had not. Albany Argus, Aug. 12, 1826. 

* Page 202. 
"' Page 276. 

* Pages 275, 278, 284, etc. 

* Page 275. 

6 This was by a vote of 68 to 48. p. 283. General Tallmadge had pre- 
viously introduced an amendment to qualify those who labored on the 
highway only if they also rented a $5-a-year tenement. It was not 
carried. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 263 

the next day voted by about the same majority to make it 
universal, on the plan of Mr. Wheeler/ The moderate 
Democrats expostulated at this "phrenzy." Van Buren 
said this would increase the electorate of New York city to 
twenty-five thousand men, enough to outweigh several 
counties in the west." Ogden Edwards thought the time 
would come when those who now opposed demands for 
universal suffrage would be remembered as the benefactors 
of the state." " High-minded men," like Duer, now coun- 
selled once again the exclusion of militia-men;* their 
organ, the Amcricait, warned solemnly against excess.'^ In 
a Sunday recess, Rufus King, weary of it all, wrote to his 
son Charles that " should the right of suffrage be made 
universal, the foundation of the constitution v/ill be such as 
to impair my safe reliance on the superstructure." " Ed- 
wards finally was able to carry through a resolution to 
commit the whole question of the suffrage to a select com- 
mittee, who might formulate an article more consonant 
with the deliberate judgment of the delegates." 

The committee brought in a proposal very similar to that 

' This vote was 63 to 55. p. 287. Dr. Young, op. cit.. discovers that 
the country members carried this provision against those from" the 
towns. 

'' Page 367. J. R. Van Rensselaer said this would increase the com- 
paratiw influence of New York city to six times what it had been in 
1 814, p. 369. 

' Page 282. 

* Pages 271-272. General Root retorted : " It has been said that my 
amendment would not suit the sober-minded part of the community; 
I suspect it is more obnoxious to the high-minded than to the sober- 
minded," p. 272. 

^ N. Y. American, Oct. 20, 1821. 

• Sept. 30, 1821, King Correspondence, vol. vi, pp. 405-406. He wrote 
Charles on Oct. 15, " I often wish that I had not come hither," ibid.. 
pp. 416-417. 

^ Pages 288-289. 



264 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

which had originally been offered.^ it was fought through, 
clause by clause, and finally carried by a vote of nearly two 
to one." It was hoped by the conservatives that some privi- 
lege might still 1)e kept for property by a requirement, which 
was once accepted by the convention,'^ that candidates for 
senator must have a thousand dollars' worth of real estate, 
but even this small relic of the old restrictions was denied 
them, for, by a resolution of Colonel Young, a simple free- 
hold was at last declared sufficient.' The conservatives had 
again been routed. 

Any who had stood between the people and their will 
were to feel the heavy hand of the convention. The judges 
who had made up the old Council of Revision must know 
their masters' scorn. Early in the discussion of the judic- 
iary the plan for their dismissal was revealed.'^ Appoint- 
ments to the supreme bench had run until the judge was 
sixty years of age; under this arrangement the eldest, the 
chief justice, had four more years to serve, while the young- 
est, Judge Van Ness, would not be superseded until 1836.* 
The chancellor would retire the following year, likewise at 
the age of sixty, unless considering his unique capacity the 
convention would extend the age of service in the equity 
court. But. in spite of Federalist appeals, there was appar- 
ently but little disposition so to do. In judicial duties he 

' Page 329- 

■•^ Page 378. The final passage, in perfected language, came Oct. 29, 
p. 588. 

3 Page 582. Van Buren and his friends were not averse to this. 

* Page 625. 

^ See discussion by Tompkins, p. 528, and Edwards, p. 5.34- 

* The terms of the others would expire as follows: Yates. 1828; 
Woodworth, 1828: and Piatt, 1829. C. Z. Lincoln, Constitutional His- 
tory, vol. i, pp. 675-676. There was no injury to Woodworth and Yates 
when the judges were " constitutionalized out of office." as Wood- 
worth was soon reappointed and Yates made governor. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 265 

was unassailable, admitted the " high-minded " Peter Jay 
Mimro, but outside the court-room, retaining the prestige 
of his high office, he was a menace to the Hberty and safety 
of the masses/ As to the other judges, a scheme was cun- 
ningly devised wdiich provided for immediate retirement. - 

It was in vain that Abraham Van Vechten protested that 
no man had understood that the convention had been called 
to turn out officers of government ; a remedy was always 
ready for misconduct on the bench, in the process for im- 
peachment. General Root responded that like other officers, 
if they merited the public confidence, they might exjject a 
reappointment, and added with his scathing sarcasm: "The 
honorable chancellor has told you, and doubtless with truth, 
that he has no fear of an investigation. And if others have 
an equal security in the consciousness of rectitude, they are 
in no danger of being injured by the indignation of the 
people." " P. R. Livingston declared these Federalist judges 
had come into office by disgraceful coalition or by party 
treacheny'- within the Council of Appointment; they had 
been well paid and had already had far more than they de- 
served.* The judges, on their own behalf, did what they 
could with dignity to stay the tide.' Henry Wheaton, a 
moderate from New York city, presented an amendment to 
jjrotect the present judges, but it was voted down by the 

' Page 615. 

-Tompkins, p. 528: Erlwards, p. 534. 

■^ Pages 531-533- 

* Page 520. Livingston's reference to coalition concerned the Quid 
council which had named Van Ness, and his reference to treason that 
of Robert Williams which had named Piatt. Spencer had been ap- 
pointed with the expectation that he would stay a Democrat. 

'" C. Z. Lincoln, Constitutional History, vol. i, p. 676. General Car- 
penter's amendment calling for an entirely new court was adopted, p. 
624. This was said to have been suggested by Colonel Young and 
General Root, Hammond, vol. ii, p. 63. Some moderates, like Van 
Buren and Sanford, voted to retain the judges. 



266 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

usual majority.^ The Federalist party left high office in 
the state forever. 

That some leaders were quite willing to exclude the rem- 
nant of that party from any influence in the legislature, is 
shown by a proposal of Van Buren. The Federalist major- 
ity in Columbia County would be sufficient to carry the 
third senate district as planned by the committee." Van 
Buren moved to take Columbia away from Albany, Rensse- 
laer, Greene, Schoharie and Schenectady, and attach it to 
the Democratic second district nmning down the Hudson 
River; and to take from this in compensation the safe and 
constant counties of Sullivan and Ulster, and transfer them 
to the third. A prompt remonstrance came from Elisha 
Williams (on whom Van Buren lavished no affection) : '^ 

In the third district you have a Gerrymander. The monster 
will curl its tail on the mountains of Jersey — coil along the bor- 
ders of Pennsylvania, wind its scaly and hideous carcass be- 
tween the crooked lines of counties, and finally thrust his head 
into Bennington. Disguise it as you will, the object will be 
visible, and the people will understand it is to exclude federal- 
ism from every senatorial district.'' 

Van Ness presented an amendment to the prejudice of New 
York city, but both were socm defeated in the vote."' 

Devices to humiliate the Federalists were scarcely needed ; 
their favorite theories had been as thoroughly discredited as 
those of astral influence and the philosopher's stone. Al- 

^ Pages 621, 624. 

^ The new constitution increased the senate districts from four to 
eight. 

^ Page 264. 

•* Page 560. E. C. Griffith, in his Rise and Dez'clopment of the 
Gerrymander (Chicago, 1907). pp. 56-61, discusses attempts at such re- 
districting in the first two decades of the century, but though he speaks 
of Bacon's proposal for single-member senatorial districts (Clarke edi- 
tion of Debates, p. 213) he does not mention Van Buren's plan. 

* Pages 560, 561. 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 267 

though there was some carping at the constitution as not 
giving quite enough to popular control/ it was accepted at 
the polls by a majority of over thirty thousand.' So cer- 
tain was the victory that many did not take the trouble to 
vote.* 

The extension of the suffrage was not achieved by the 
eloquence of advocates; it came because it accorded with 
an American ideal. " From our cradles," said Judge Ham- 
mond, " we had been taught that a zealous support of equal 
rights and an extension of equal civil privileges to all was 
an evidence of our devotion to liberty and the true prin- 
ciples of a republican government." * The impulse was not 
wholly spent in the convention; four years later there were 
abolished what restrictions yet remained upon the manhood 
franchise.^ No longer was there in New^ York a theory 

^ [Benjamin Romaine], A Comparative View and Exhibition of Rea- 
sons opposed to the Adoption of the Nezv Constitution, etc., by an Old 
Citizen (^N. Y., 1822). This pamphlet speaks of "the princely preroga- 
tives of our future governors." due to the appointing pow^er (p. 5), 
checked only by an "aristocratic senate" without reference to the 
popular branch (p. 17). Tliis critic may be suspected, however, as he 
was a CUntonian, and therefore quite naturally opposed to this " child 
of the Republican Party." Cf. the following from P. A. Jay to John Jay, 
Nov. 15, 1821 (Jay Correspondence, vol. iv, p. 455) : " There seems to be 
a passion for universal sufifrage pervading the Union. There remain 
only two States in which a qualification in respect of property is retained. 
When those who possess no property shall be more numerous than 
those who have it, the consequence of this alteration will, I fear, be 
severely felt." 

^ J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 94. 

*The N. Y. Commercial Advertiser on Jan. 21, 1822, apologized for 
having forgotten to print the news of the election when it had been 
received four days before. Albany, Columbia, Greene, Montgomery, 
Schenectady, Ulster and Queens counties voted against the constitu- 
tion. In Ontario and Rensselaer the vote was very close; see N. V. 
Spectator, Feb. 19, 1822. 

* Political History, vol. ii, p. 49. 

'■' Albany Argus, Jan. 21. 1825. Under this provision all adult males 



268 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

that any class of men was wiser, abler or better than an- 
other in the public business. A political democracy had 
been established, that " perv-ersion " of which Aristotle 
warned, '' in which the mechanics and the hired laborers 
must needs be citizens."' ^ The ballot in the Jeffersonian 
opinion was a weapon of defense to protect the individual's 
rights ; a decade must elapse before it was considered as an 
instrument of social progress.^ Yet to recognize and to 
define his rights, the young citizen must be enlightened by 
a systematic course of training, for Jefferson's whole theory 
rested on a " strong faith in the teachableness of the great 
mass of the people." ■' The framers of the constitution 
realized that democracy and education must make their 
progress hand in hand, and their generation in New York 
showed an unexampled interest in the common school.* 

who had lived a year in the state and six months in the county could 
vote. See infra, ch. ix. Of course, the quaHfications concerning age and 
residence were retained. In 1833 the constitution was amended so that 
qualified voters in New York city might vote for mayor, and in 1830 
this provision was extended to all other cities of the state; C. Z. Lin- 
coln, Constitutional History, vol. ii, p. 3. 

' " Hence there is a particular polity, zis., the extreme Democracy, in 
which the mechanics and the hired laborers must needs be citizens, 
while there are others in which it is impossible, e. g., wherever there 
exists the polity commonly called aristocratical. in which virtue and 
desert constitute the sole claim to the honors of state; for it is im- 
possible to live tlie life of a mechanic or laborer and at the same time 
devote oneself to the practice of virtue." .Aristotle's Politics. J. C. 
Walden translation (London, 1905), p. 114. 

^C. E. Merriam. American Political Theories (N. Y., 1903). chap, iv; 
E. D. Adams. The Power of Ideals in American History (New Haven, 
1913), chap. v. 

' John Fiske, " Thomas Jefferson, Conservative Reformer."' Essays, 
Hi.^torical and Literary (N. Y., 1902), p. 145 et seq. 

* Remarks of Mr. Buel, Debates, p. 242. " Obviously a society to 
which stratification into separate classes would be fatal, must see to it 
that intellectual opportunities are accessible on equable and easy terms. 
. . . Otherwise, they will be overwhelmed by changes in which they 



PROPERTY OR PEOPLE 269 

They could fervently repeat the words of Daiiton : "Apres 
le pain, reducation est le premier besoin du peuple." 

are caught and whose signilicance or connections they do not per- 
ceive." John Dewey, Democracy and Education (N. Y., 1916), pp. lOi- 
102. Cf. E. A. Fitzpatrick. The Educational I lews and InRiience of 
DeWitt Clinton (Teachers College, Columbia University, 1911). 

Note on the Negro Vote. — In an article entitled, " The Negro Vote 
in Old New York," Political Science Quarterly, vol. xxxii, no. 2, pp. 
25.2-275, the present writer has presented the evidence which supports 
the following conclusions : 

Slaves were introduced into the Hudson River region before Man- 
hattan houses were a decade old. When the EngHsh took control a 
generation later the trade in '* negears " was solicitously fostered by 
the government. They were scattered about in the houses of the aris- 
tocracy, who were Federalists, for the most part, in the early national 
period. Yet slave-holding did not pay, and was so expensive that Fed- 
eralists themselves supported the Manumission Society, and finally by 
their party vote carried through a scheme of gradual emancipation. 
Their slaves, who had been well treated, stood by " the families " after 
freedom almost as faithfully as before; and as soon as any were quali- 
fied for the suffrage by owning $100 w^orth of property, they voted the 
Federahst assembly ticket. The mechanics had opposed emancipation, 
for they did not like to see the negro change his butler's coat for cap 
and jeans or his salver for a saw. The proportion of negroes in New 
York was then several times larger than now, and they were massed in 
doubtful wards in New York city and Brooklyn. In spite of all the 
Republicans could do. they actually decided the state election of 181 3 
in favor of the Federalist party. When in the convention of 1821 
property qualifications were removed for whites by the Democratic- 
Republicans, a high qualification was retained for negroes, against the 
earnest protest of the Federalists led by Peter A. Jay. After this the 
negro vote was of less relative importance for a time, but it was 
steadily Clintonian, National Republican and Whig. In the preliminary 
discussion before the convention of 1846. Democratic papers and 
pamphleteers favored complete disfranchisement of the negroes, while 
the Whigs, as a whole, favored equal suffrage. The Whigs were almost 
unanimous, in the debates, against disfranchisement, but could not get 
equal suffrage provided for in the constitution, and had to be satisrie<l 
with a separate submission of this clause. A Democratic majority in 
the electorate defeated it. It was almost wholly a party question ; abo- 
litionist or free-soil sentiment had little or nothing to do with opinion 



270 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



[Note continued.] 

on negro suffrage. Tammany Hall, supported chiefly by mechanics, op- 
posed any favors to the negroes, as they would attract others of that 
race to New York, and this would depress wages. The negroes voted 
Whig because of old loyalties and the fear of the mechanics. " For the 
last five or six years before I left New York," testified a witness in 
Iowa in 1851, in speaking of the negroes, "their votes were deposited 
sometimes for the third-party candidate, but most generally for the old 
Whig party." They were Whigs because their fathers had been Fed- 
eralists. If there had never been a negro south of the Potomac, still 
the negro in New York would not have voted for the Democratic ticket. 



CHAPTER IX 
Old Comrades and New Banners 

The sovereign people were exacting masters ; they would 
not tolerate one souvenir of dynasts whom they had sup- 
planted. Relics of prerogative, it mattered not how hoary 
their antiquity, were jealously resented by '' the lordly 
mob of God-wise folk." After 1821, there being then no 
question as to the theory of government acceptable to New 
York state, the triumphant Democrats, like the Jacobins of 
'ninety-three demanding heads, set out to purge the state 
of all those practices which might recall the old regime. 
The chief party contest of the legislature which soon fol- 
lowed, was on the question of the governor's speech. For 
a hundred and thirty years it had been customary for the 
executive to come in person to the legislature as soon as it 
was organized, a procedure which Clinton had recently de- 
fended as more deferential to the people's representatives 
than the sending of a message as had been proposed. On 
this the Democrats took issue with him, and refused tu 
make the usual formal answer ; these pomps and ceremonies 
they declared to be but *' remnants of royalty," and won 
their point in a debate which exhausted almost an entire 
day and in bare abstract filled four columns of the Argus.^ 

The propriety of other old-time customs soon became 
the subject of discussion. The next year, Mr. Morss of 
New York city introduced a resolution, that the titles of 

1 Albany Argus, Jan. 15. 1822. 

271 



272 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

" his excellency," by which the governor was known, and 
" honorable," bestowed on many officials of the state, 
should '■ be discontinued and ai)olished. as incompatible 
with the republican form and principles of the constitu- 
tion."' ' The resolution passed the assembly, but met de- 
rision in Clintonian newspapers. To the Evening Post it 
seemed ''degrading and ridiculous," - and Colonel Stone of 
the Coimncrcial Advertiser observed, in a sarcastic humor, 
that equality would be extended soon to size and weight, 
and in the interest of the new economy no one should grow 
fat cheeks or double chin.-' But after some reflection the 
legislators came to the conclusion that they had gone too 
far. and within a week the precious titles were restored, to 
the perennial delectation of humorists and foreign visitors. ■• 
In Februar)-, 1823. the " high-minded " John A. King, 
acting in the spirit of the time, attracted much attention 
and support by a resolution in the senate to make the exec- 
utive journal of that body a public record." The tendency 
toward new ideals of popular control was plainly to be seen. 
The vanquished Federalists realized the futility of any 
protest; they had spoken all their mind in 1821, with 
little more result than to intensify the prejudice against 
them. Though some intransigents were never reconciled," 
most old-party men now joined with other followers of 
Clinton as fully in accord with the new theory. For the 

' iV. Y. Commercial Advertiser. Jan. 13, 1823. 
•' N. Y. Evening Post, Jan. 18. 1823. 

* A^ Y. Spectator, Jan. 17, 1823. He had poked fun at the debate the 
year before, see A'. 1'. Commercial Advertiser. Jan. 17, 1822. 

* See the comment of Judge Hammond, Political History, vol. ii. p. 124. 
^ A^ Y. Senate Journal, 1823, p. 129; J. A. King to R. King, Feb. 21, 

1823, King Correspondence: N. Y. American. Feb. 24, March 3. 1823. 

6 See Wm. L. Stone, Jr.. " Life and Writings of WilHam Leete Stone," 
hound with Wm. L. Stone, Sr., Life of Red Jacket (N. Y., 1866), p. 25. 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 



^7d> 



next few years in New York state, factions strove in their 
contentions each to prove itself more friendly to the people 
than its rival. We shall see conservatives assume the name 
of " People's Party " and demand of the reluctant Demo- 
crats the choice of the members of the electoral college by 
voters at the polls. " Resolved, That all power emanates 
from the People," ran a broadside issued by the leaders of 
Clintonians and Federalists, "and that they alone can safely 
be trusted with its exercise." ^ while another held that the 
doctrine " that the farther the appointing power was re- 
moved from the people the better." was opposed to all re- 
publican tradition." In return, their enemies exhumed the 
past of Federalism. Its candidate in 1824 was scored as 
one who had vetoed the convention bill.^ When, shortly 
after, a Senator of the United States was to be chosen, 
Silas Wright wrote Azariah C. Flagg : " Make a dash at 
Spencer in your paper for his conduct in the convention " ; * 
it was important to remember that it was St. Ambrose who 
had argued for a landlord senate.^ 

To counteract the prestige of the People's Men, the 
Democrats in the spring of 1825 presented an amendment 
which provided for the popular election of justices of the 
peace and brushed aside the few restrictions on the general 

' " Republican Fellow-Citizens of Albany," Dec. 23. 1823 (N. Y. P. L.). 
" Resolved, That the people, being the true source of power, are entitled 
to the enjoyment and exercise of that power in such a manner as they 
deem consistent with their interests and privileges," Broadside, "Albany 
County Convention ... J. Alexander, Chairman," 1824 (N. Y. P. L. ). 

' Broadside, " Young Men's [Albany] County Convention," Oct. 18, 
1824 (N. Y. P. L.). This same bill recommended DeWitt Clinton for 
governor and Stephen Van Rensselaer for senator. 

3 Broadside, "Calumny Refuted," 1824 (N. Y. P. L.). 

* Feb. I, 1825, Flagg Mss. 

* Wright to Flagg, Jan. 18, 1825, ibid. 



274 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

suffrage which had survived lour years before.' These 
well-phrased resolutions introduced by Senator John Lef- 
ferts, though the work of Silas Wright (for '' Brother 
Lefferts did not draw a long quill" ),^ were accorded a 
support almost unanimous, for few dared to vote against 
them, and, passed again in 1826, were then accepted at the 
polls. As when in 1822 it had been recalled by Democrats 
that Henry Huntington, named for lieutenant governor by 
the conservatives, had opposed extension of the right of 
suffrage," so in 1826 Clintonians warned voters to beware 
of General Pitcher, a candidate for the same office, as he 
had stood against the election of the local justices.* In the 
arsenal of journalistic epithets, the word *' aristocrat '* was 
thought the deadliest of all, and when the contest grew 
most bitter it was hurled by either side against the other. 
New York state, as we have said, was now for all time 
committed to the doctrine of political democracy: this had 
ceased to be a question of debate. No leader could profess 
opinions such as those of Judge Piatt sixteen years before : 
reputations were now searched as with a microscope to de- 
tect a trace of such a taint. 

As the party of the landed aristocracy, the Federalists 
had been defeated and humiliated. Their name had such a 

' Of course, a residential qualification was retained. 

^ Wright to Flagg. loc. cit. 

^Broadside. "Falsehood Exposed'" (N. Y. Historical Society). 

* Broadside, "Republican Nomination [in Washington County]" (N. 
Y. Hist. Soc). They also found some profit in berating Van Buren 
and his followers with respect to the electoral bill, and their organ, the 
Albany Daily Advertiser, printed editorials with the title-head, "The 
Aristocracy against the People" (c. g., Oct. 20, 1826; Albany Daily 
Advertiser, Extra, Oct. 11, 1824; circular of Albany Daily Advertiser 
and Albany Gazette, 1824 (N. Y. P. L.). Van Buren was attacked in 
1825 for having opposed the election of justices of the peace in 1821 : 
see Broadside, "Caucus Mirror," Chenango Co., 1825 (N. Y. P. L.), 
and "Young Men's Convention," Coeymans, Oct. 14, 1825 (N. Y. P. L.). 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 



275 



woeful connotation that it was discarded. They declared 
their party lived in history alone, insinuating that they 
should now be enrolled as good Republicans, relieved from 
stigma and eligible to any office/ In the summer of 1822, 
the Clintonians by a general, though a tacit, understanding, 
for a time disbanded." Its special enemies thus retiring 
from the field, the " high-minded " American joined in the 
opinion that the struggles in New York were at an end,^ 
admitting that " the Federal party having no longer any 
ground of principle to stand on, has necessarily ceased to 
exist as a party." * The Evening Post and the New York 
Gazette declared that now the only contest was between the 
city and the country. ° 

But all this was far from grateful to the organizers of 
the Democratic party who had brought these things to pass. 
Were they, after years of planning and achievement, now 
to share their hard-earned fruits with those they had de- 
feated ? " This new-light political creed,'' scathingly re- 
marked the Argtts, " which pretends to disregard all polit- 
ical distinction, and to place all on the same footing, we 
regard as the offspring of the most detestable hypocrisy/' ^ 
It had no patience with those smirking unctuous FederaHsts 
who prated of an era of good feeling. Let no one think 
that Federalism had passed away : the divisions in the body 
politics were not like village factions, formed in personal 
quarrels and dying in a year. 

' A^. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 2, 1822. 

'J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii. p. 91. 

' M. Van Buren to R. King, Feb., 1822, King Correspondence. 

■* iV. Y. American, Sept. 6, 1823. 

' Quoted in the Albany Argus, Feb. 28, 1823. 

^Ibid., Jan. 18, 1822. 



276 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

It is not so with the parties of which we speak. These, though 
they originate in single points of difference, take deeper root ; 
they outlive the causes of their commencement, and those who 
constitute them are led to opposite sides upon all questions 
which may arise in the progress of public transactions. The 
classes of men of which they are composed, each alike, are 
. bound together by a thousand affinities and antipathies ; real or 
fancied persecutions rivet the bonds of union; the succession 
of generations renders them more enduring, and the transmis- 
sion of sentiments and feelings of the father to the son is 
generally regular and unbroken. Notwithstanding the change 
of interests and of name, the same individuals and families 
have been found after the lapse of years, acting in concert on 
all questions of a public nature. Such has been the character 
and such the history of parties everywhere.^ 

The Argus in this editorial was not the first or last to set 
forth a philosophy of parties; yet why among the English- 
speaking peoples there should be two parties, apparently 
immortal, is a thorny problem which lies athwart the path- 
way even of the student of New York throughout the 
'twenties. " The idea of an amalgamation of parties in a 
free state." said Judge Hammond, writing of an earlier 
condition, " is chimerical, and the notion that three parties 
can for any considerable time exist is ridiculous." - Long 
habit had played its part in enforcing this opinion. Eng- 
lishmen had steadily developed an interest in their govern- 
ment some centuries before their continental neighbors ; but 
soon after 1600 it became a question whether this interest 
should be kept and possibly increased, or should be wholly 
quashed by an officer of state who claimed to be above all 
human law. This question developed two important par- 
ties — the one, at least in name, standing for the country 

'^Albany Argus, Sept. 12, 1823. 
* Political History, vol. i, p. 476. 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 277 

and the diffusion of control, tlie other for the court and its 
prescriptive privileges — which with certain changes have 
persisted almost to today. Though some rivalries which 
strengthened this alignment were by their nature limited to 
England, the tradition of two parties was brought by colo- 
nists across the sea, was strengthened in the Revolution, 
when the voteless backwoodsmen and proletariat first tasted 
power, and was then transmitted to the nation, for a time 
to be deplored and then accepted as inevitable/ 

These parties have endured while heroic leaders rose and 
fell. Antipathies so deep are only superficially explained by 
reference to the legal dialectics on a written constitution. 
The explanation frequently advanced, that they represent 
the cautious who rely on order and the bold who seek for 
liberty, conservatives who w^ould not tamper with the major 
institutions — church, state, property and family — and re- 
formers who see hope in change, has much to recommend 
it, yet the circumstances of the individual's position, what- 
ever be his temperament, will oftentimes provide him with 
a secret bias. When property is not evenly distributed, it is 
the men who have the largest share who cherish a calm 
sense of legality, because as a minority they could not make 
appeal to force.- Yet with an open continent before them 

' " In all free countries parties will exist ; they necessarily arise from 
different views of public measures; and when confined within the 
bounds of moderation, they are calculated to awaken inquiry, to promote 
virtuous emulation, and to prevent the approaches of tyranny and op- 
pression," Address to the Republican Citizens of the State of New York 
(pamphlet, Albany, 1813, N. Y. P. L. ; supposed to have been written by 
DeWitt Clinton), p. 3. For a comment on the sectional character of 
party strife, see H. €. Hockett, Western Influence on Political Parties 
to 1825, Ohio State Univ. Bulletin (Columbus, 1917). 

^ That rich men were found in either party in the early nineteenth 
century, but that those whose property was in great plantations were, 
broadly speaking, in one party, along with the debt-burdened farmers, 
while those who held much personal estate were in the other, is the 



278 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

the landed and commercial aristocracy had lost in relative 
importance and could not save their law in the face of the 
challenge of 1821. They must wait some years till, joining 
others in a reinvestment of their property, they found an 
economic issue in which their profit and the people's wel- 
fare seemed again to go together. Meanwhile as individuals 
they took up the name of those who had defeated them. It 
was, however, as Jefferson assured Van Buren, " an amal- 
gamation of name but not of principle. Tories are tories 
still, by whatever name they may be called." ^ The Demo- 
cratic leaders feared the Federalists bearing votes and were 
resolved to share with them no patronage. 

An incident in 1822 contributed to keep alive this ani- 
mosity. When the Albany post-office became vacant by a 
summary removal, Solomon Van Rensselaer promptly filed 
an application.- Tompkins, the Vice-President, and Sen- 
ator Van Buren brought all their influence to bear to com- 
pass its rejection, solely on the ground that he had been a 
Federalist; but after grave discussion by the cabinet, the 
appointment was announced. •'' The conservative news- 
thesis of C. A. Beard's, Economic Origins of the Jeff crsonian Democracy. 
Of course many party men vote with economic interest sub-consciously 
apprehended, and a saving remnant in spite of it. As for the fact of 
there being parties at all, it is. perhaps, sufficiently accounted for in the 
natural combativeness of man. 

* Jefferson to Van Buren. 1824, Jeflferson's Writings (Ford edition), 
vol. X, p. 316. 

^ He had been turned out of his post as adjutant general the year be- 
fore, viras now in Congress and therefore had an advantage in proximity 
to the appointing power. His falling fortunes (for he belonged to a 
less wealthy branch of the family) would be repaired by the stipend of 
$2,000 and the patronage of $1,750. Solomon Van Rensselaer to the 
Patroon, Dec. 26, 1821, Mrs. Bonney's Legacy, vol. i, p. 369, and to 
De Witt Qinton, Nov. 22, 1824. Clinton Mss. 

■' " The principal charge against you, and I believe the only one. was 
that you were a Federalist, and opposed to what they called the Republi- 
can party" S. L. Gouverneur (Monroe's private secretary in 1822) to 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 



279 



papers were elated, but the Democratic officeholders gath- 
ered in Albany to protest.' '' A more objectionable selec- 
tion could hardly have been made," complained the Argits, 
" than that of General Van Rensselaer. He has always 
been a violent opposer of the republican party — republican 
men and republican measures have at all times been assailed 
by him, with the most bitter and acrimonious hostility." "'' 
A few days later the general's house was burned by some 
incendiaries." Old party feeling had not passed away. 

Though elections had been changed from April to No- 
vember, the Democratic legislators met in caucus as was 
customary in the early spring, and fixed upon Judge Joseph 
Yates and General Root to head their ticket. Conditions 
being what they were, Clintonians withheld their chief 
from standing for a re-election, but did oppose Root for 
lieutenant governor, with Henry Huntington, a wealthy 
banker from Oneida County.^ With no contest as to gov- 

Solomon Van Rensselaer, March 23, 1839, Mrs. Bonney's Legacy, vol. ii, 
p. no. Rufus King protested at first on the ground that it would inter- 
rupt the harmony of New York state, but after this statement he re- 
tired from the contest. Cf. R. King to R. J. Meigs, P. M. General, Jan. 
3, 1822; to Charles King, Jan. 8. and Jan, 14, 1822; to Egbert Benson, 
Jan. 20, 1822; and W. A. Duer to R. King, Jan. 13, 1822, King Corres- 
pondence; D. D. Tompkins to Jonathan Thompson, Jan. 4, 1822, Mrs. 
Bonney's Legacy, vol. i, p. 2)72,', Sol. Van Rensselaer to the Patroon, 
Dec. 26, 1821, ibid., p. 370; and J. Q. Adams, Memoir, vol. v, p. 479. 
Judge Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 96 et seq., and Hugh 
Hastings, in his articles in the A'^. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Oct., 1883, 
scold King for his conduct, but in view of all the circumstances per- 
haps unfairly. Hastings, without mentioning his authority, says that 
the whole matter was quietly engineered by Clinton. 

^ N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Jan. 10, 11, 15, 1822; Albany Argus. 
Jan. IS, 22, 1822. 

- Jan. 15, 1822. 

■' v. F. Statesman, February 20, 1822. 

*A^. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Oct. 26, 1822: J. D. Hair.mond. Polit- 
ical History, vol. ii, p. 231. 



28o ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

ernor, the campaign seemed to signalize the nadir of the 
fortunes of conservatives, yet Huntington had more than 
half as many votes as Root, scattered generally throughout 
the state, and the old Federalist districts, as usual, sent 
their opposition members to the legislature/ " The ship 
and the crew are precisely the same that they were for- 
merly," it was remarked, " with the same commander on 
board; but without exhibiting any colours."' The new 
governor, of a benevolent temper, sent a sapless message 
to the legislature, intended to be soothing, and naively 
nominated Jonas Piatt and Ambrose Spencer as supreme 
court judges, for confirmation by the senate/^ Thev were, 
of course, promptly and overwhelmingly rejected. The 
governor must have had a genius for credulity to have 
taken seriously the Federalist pronouncements as to amal- 
gamation.* Because he had been unopposed it did not 
mean the dawn of a millenium; it was fatuous to think 
while Clinton lived that he would listlessly retire from the 
field." 

1 Albany Argus, Dec. lo, 1822; Solomon Southwick polled a few votes 
for governor. A^ Y. Commercial Advertiser, Nov. 7, 1822, Jan. 14, 
1823; N. Y. Evening Post. Nov. 4. 7. 1822; A'. Y. Spectator, Nov. 19, 
1822; Albany Argus, Nov. 8, 12, 1822. 

'Albany Argus, June 21, 1822. For a comment on the virulence of 
party contests, c. g. in Canandaigua, where the Ontario Messenger 
owned by J. C. Spencer, Granger, etc., disputed with the Ontario 
Repository, see A'. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Jan. 14, 1822. 

^Messages from the Governors, vol. iii, p. 2; J. D. Hammond, Polit- 
ical History, vol. ii, p. 107; A^ Y. Evening Post, Jan. 10, 1823. 

* Cf. comment in A^ Y. Evening Post, Jan. 27, 30, 1823. 

* Clinton had retired with reluctance (J. D. Hammond, Political His- 
tory, vol. ii, p. 98), for though his more intelligent and prudent friends 
had discouraged him, others had given different counsel. Gideon 
Granger had urged him to stand as the candidate of the west : " The 
conclusion of the coming wheat harvest will be time enough to begin 
to act. We should stand cool, easy &: collected and when the season of 
action arrives we should display an t;:nerg},' hitherto not exhibited. It 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 



2«I 



But a stronger influence toward vitalizing party spirit lay 
in the character and policies of the Democratic leaders. 
They desired an opposition firm enough to keep their fol- 
lowers in discipline. The " Holy Alliance " they were 
called at first, but this title did not indicate their permanence 
and mutual responsibility as well as one soon afterward be- 
stowed upon them and accepted, the "Albany Regency".^ 
Van Buren was, of course, their leader, a man uncommonly 
endowed with common sense and a shrewd and accurate 
judge of men ; William L. Marcy should be numbered next, 
a bluff New Englander, who in intervals between his fight- 
ing in the war of 1812 had attracted notice by some able 
articles defending Tompkins, and had since instructed 
Rensselaer County in the doctrine through the columns of 
his Northern Budget.'^ Azariah C. Flagg, who had led his 
troops to battle by the Saranac as Marcy had by the St. 
Regis, had likewise served the party in his Plattsburgh Re- 
publican, and had come to the assembly marked for leader- 
ship.*'' Silas Wright, of St. Lawrence County, w-as elected 
to the senate in 1823; he had graduated from Middlebury 
College as one of four Republicans in a class of thirty, and 

should be manifested by vigorous personal efforts rather than by news- 
papers vociferations. If it suits your convenience to explore the canal, 
the connexions between Seneca and the Susquehanah, the iron beds of 
the North and the reasonable evidence of the West, as well as the infant 
fishery on the East of Long Island perhaps it would not be without 
usefulness," April 4, 1822, Clinton Mss. 

^ E. E. Hale, Jr., in his interesting WilUani H. Seward (Philadelphia, 
1910), p. 44, note, states that the first use of this word that he had found 
was in the Albany Advertiser, Jan. 17, 1824, which speaks of " the cabinet 
council of Van Buren, or rather the regency whom he has appointed 
to govern the state in his absence." 

"^ For sketches of Marcy, see J. S. Jenkins, Lives of the Governors. 
pp. 546-606, and J. B. Moore, "A Great Secretary of State," Political 
Science Quarterly, vol. xxx. pp. 377-396. 

^ Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. 



282 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

since risen to importance as a lawyer in his town of Canton. 
Competent and winning, and inflexible in his allegiance to 
the principles of Jefferson, though not conspicuously daring, 
he easily found place among the Regency/ The brilliant 
Samuel A. Talcott, a *' high-minded '" man from Utica, 
was three times attorney general after 1821, could argue as 
an equal with such advocates as Webster, and might have 
had a national career had he not mistaken dissipation for a 
sign of genius." In this he was in contrast with his friend. 
Benjamin F. Butler, whose Puritan piety was mocked at 
by incredulous foes, and whose diligence and public spirit 
brought him high distinction." Dr. Michael Hoffman, a 
German from the town of Herkimer, educated in the law 
as well as medicine, was of more importance in the group 
than has usually been recognized. The letters which he 
wrote from Washington, where he served eight years in 
Congress, are full of sound advice on large concerns of 
policy, while his financial plans and measures for the state, 
in their wisdom and consistency, should give him with his- 
torians something of the character of statesman.* Edwin 
Croswell, whose name concludes our catalogue, was the 
spokesman of the party. By his address and tact, aided l^y 
nice literary taste, he made the Albany Argits for a time 
the most influential paper in the northern states.''' 

^ There are lives of Wright by J. D. Hammond (Syracuse, 1848) ; J. 
S. Jenkins (Auburn, 1847) ; R. H. Gillett, two volumes (Al]>any, 1874). 

' Bacon, Early Bar of Oneida County; M. M. Bagg, Pioneers of Utica, 
pp. 418-424. 

* W. L. Mackenzie, Lives and Opinions of Benjamin F. Butler, etc. 
(Boston, 1845). 

* Letters from Hoffman to A. C. Flagg, constitute one volume in the 
Flagg Mss. ; N. S. Benton, History of Herkimer County (Albany, 1856), 
pp. 323 et seq.\ American Almanac for 1850 (Boston); G. W. Smith. 
" The Career of Michael Hoffman," Papers of Herkimer Co. Hist. Soc, 
1896 (Herkimer, 1899), pp. 5 ct seq. 

*J. D. Hammond. Political History, vol. ii, pp. i54- 204, 524 n. The 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS zS^, 

That this group should stir opponents to a bitter condem- 
nation, is not surprising, especially when in the absence of 
dramatic contests in national politics, attention was con- 
fined within the state/ They were formidable in solidar- 
ity. Wright in 1823 would have preferred John Quincy 
Adams for the presidency, while Flagg favored Clay, or 
possibly Calhoun ; - but when their colleagues had decided, 
they were ardent Crawford men. Flagg was for a popular 
election of electors until he was instructed,^ and then be- 
came the chief defender of the older method; Hoffman 
later did not care for Jackson, but sank his prejudices in 
deference to the general party will.* If they could not 
always reach the Greek ideal of harmony, they could achieve 
a Roman concord. Yielding individually to what they 
thought the practical demands of leadership, they insisted 
on a like subordination throughout the party. They de- 
plored self-nominations, and insisted on the authenticity of 

N. Y. American, Feb. 2, 1827, charged that the "gentleman pensioners" 
of the Regency wrote articles which were sent out to affiliated papers 
in the state, from which later the Argus copied them as evidence of 
popular sentiment. The Argus denied this on Feb. 5, 1827. Benjamin 
Knower was called a member of the Regency, and also Roger Skinner, 
though he died in 1825. J. A. Dix, James Porter, T. VV. Olcott, and 
C. E. Dudley were also regularly associated with the leaders ; cf. Thurlow 
Weed, Autobiography, p. 103. 

' See N. Y. American, Nov. 22, 1823. Van Buren seemed not quite 
able to understand why there should be so much hostile criticism : 
" Why the deuce is it," he wrote to Rufus King, " that they have such 
an itching for abusing me. I try to be harmless, and positively good- 
natured, & a most decided friend of peace," Sept. 21, 1822, King Cor- 
respondence. 

'' Wright to Flagg, Dec. 20, 1827 ; Flagg to Wright. Oct. 28. 1823 ; 
Flagg to Van Buren, Nov. 12, 1823. 

'^ Plattsburgh Republican, Nov. 8, 1823; N. Y. American. Jan. 27, 1824. 

* " I don't like the Jackson frolic very well, but I suppose we must 
have it," Hoffman to Flagg, Flagg Mss. He makes numerous other 
comments to the same effect. 



284 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

all done in a caucus/ To question this was wrong, they 
said ; it had a bad effect on future contests : " an opposition 
on the ground of principle will be used to authorize an 
opposition on the ground of caprice." ' 

They did not look for harvest where they had not sown, 
and carefully apportioned their appointments/ The tough- 
minded William L. Marcy in debate with Clay admitted 
that, " They saw nothing wrong in the rule, that to the vic- 
tor belong the spoils of the enemy." * They seemed to hold 
an absolutist, almost mystical, conception of the rights of 
the party, so important and so precious as to be beyond the 
laws of private ethics. " Don't be too fastidious," wrote 
Marcy; ''when party feeling is strong almost anything 
that is done is right. I have not time to carry out fully my 
ideas on this subject, but a hint is enough to such a wise 
and experienced body as the Albany Regency.'^ '' 

They w'ere so successful that their bewildered enemies. 
in search of explanation, could think of nothing less than 
sorcery.** Silas Wright had little patience with the party 
managers he met in Washington : " They do not under- 

1 E. g. in Argus, Oct. 22,, 1823. Adams men heartily approved of 
self-nomination; cf. N. Y. American, Oct. 4, 1825. "At no period be- 
fore or since, has caucus law been more readily acquiesced in, and 
more promptly enforced) than the present," J. D. Hammond, Political 
History, vol. ii, p. 114 (writing of 1823). 

* W. L. Marcy and Edwin Croswell to A. C. Flagg. Oct. 20. 1825, 
Flagg Mss. 

' " On the subject of appointments you well know my mind. Give 
them to good true & useful friends, who will enjoy the emoluments if 
there is any, and will use the influence to our benefit, if any influence 
is conferred by the office. This is the long and short of the rule by 
which to act,'' Silas Wright to A. C. Flagg, August 29, 1827, ibid. 

* Marcy on Van Buren's nomination to England, Annals of Congress, 
vol. viii, pp. 1313, 1325, 1356. 

* Marcy to Flagg, Feb. 6, 1830! ?], Flagg Mss. 

* Wright to Flagg. Oct. 10, 1827, ibid. 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 285 

Stand doing these things, after all," said he, " as well as 
the Albany Regency." ^ Yet they were not often charged 
with gross corruption, and when taxed with having turned 
out officers whose competence could not be questioned, in 
order to make room for friends, they might correctly cite 
a long line of precedents." They exchanged the higher 
offices and honors of the state among themselves, but they 
faithfully performed the duties which attached to them. 
They were virtuosos in the arts of party management, but 
they had a theory of government and, as long as they re- 
mained together, a consistent policy. 

The conservative party in the north, though it long op- 
posed all social changes, has been the party of business en- 
terprise, the party with a program, while the Democracy 
has been the party with a creed.' It was to the latter that 
the Regency belonged, and hating public debt they stead- 
fastly adhered to a policy of strict economy, to the disgust 
of the Clintonians and Whigs.* They were not a mere cabal 
of politicians; three men of this small group took place 
among the able governors of the state and represented it as 
Senators in Washington; one became a President, and an- 
other refused a nomination for that office; four cabinet 
positions were distributed among them; the others were 

1 Wright to Flagg, Dec. 13, 1827, Flagg Mss. 

' Proscription in New York goes back certainly to the times of Gov- 
ernors Fletcher, Bellomont and Cornbury, when Leislerians and their 
opponents were alternately turned out of office. Marcy in the senatorial 
debate mentioned Spencer as a worse offender than the Regency in this 
regard. It has been customary to trace the beginning of the practice to 
the Council of Appointment of 1801 of which De Witt Clinton and 
Spencer were members, but H. L. McBain (cf. siit^ra, p. 6, note) has 
plausibly ascribed it to their Federalist predecessors. 

* J. F. Jameson, History of Historical Writing in America (Boston, 
1891), pp. 93-94. 

* D. C. Sowers, Financial History of New York State (N. Y.. 1914). 
pp. 64, 66. 67, 69. 



286 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

remembered as public men of principle and useful service- 
There was no possibility of " amalgamation " while such 
men determined otherwise; they had not long to wait be- 
fore an issue was presented w^hich silenced any talk of the 
catholicity of the great Republican party. 

As the election of 1824 drew near, the contest for the 
presidential nomination grew exciting. Clay, Crawford, 
Adams, Jackson and Calhoun were all considered candi- 
dates, but Adams seemed to be the favorite in New York 
at first, by reason of his northern birth as well as of his 
public record ; ^ since Virginia had furnished Presidents 
for eight administrations out of nine, many were deter- 
mined to stand out for a northern man, who never had held 
slaves." The Kings and their American brought most 
" high-minded men " to this decision.^ The Commercial 
Advertiser, no doubt speaking for the majority of old Fed- 
eralists, expressed regret that Clinton was not then avail- 
able, and soon came out for Adams."* But agreement could 

' Albany Argus, May 13, 1823. 

*R. King's memorandum, King Correspondence, vol. vi, p. 508; 
Stephen Van Rensselaer to De Witt Clinton, Jan. 25, 1823, Clinton Mss. 
On the other hand, the Argus deprecated "the misguided attempts of 
the editors of the American to array the north against the south, and 
sow the seeds of disaffection and jealousy in the union," Aug. 15, 1823. 
On May i, 1823, Johnston Verplanck retired from the editorship of the 
American leaving Charles King in sole charge. On the matter of slave- 
holding, cf. American, August 15, 1823, and Argus, July 29, 1823. 

'J. Verplanck to M. Van Buren, Van Buren Mss.; R. King to J. A. 
King, Jan., 1823. and to C. Gore. Feb. g. 1823, King Correspondence. 
The Argus now begins to call the American a '"Federal paper"; it 
was apparent, they observed, " that deep-rooted predilections were not 
easily controlled," Aug. i, 15, 1823. 

*Jan. 21, 1823; Aug. 13, 1824. It deprecated reference to "the now 
insignificant circumstance of his having been a federalist, or the still 
less important one, as concerns merit, of his now being a republican"; 
cf. likewise the Poughkeepsic Journal, and, according to the Argus 
(Aug. 26, 1823), all the other '"ultra-federal" journals in the state. 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 287 

not be expected; the Argus now observed that true Demo- 
crats would leave the Secretary of State when they saw 
what kind of men supported him, while the Adams papers 
railed at Crawford as the candidate of Radicals and Jac- 
obins.' 

In national affairs, for more than twenty years, the New 
York Democrats had won their triumphs as the colleagues 
of Virginians. Disliking Adams for his friends, the leaders 
naturally chose Crawford as the candidate of their old 
allies, and because he stood for an authentic caucus nomi- 
nation, a principle which they considered very precious. 
As early as January, 1822, they had come out strongly for 
this procedure, deprecating all irregular and premature an- 
nouncements in the state.^ The leader of the Regency 
long afterward explained that the Democratic party had 
always had more need of these devices than their adver- 
saries, since the program of the latter would either fascinate 
the voters by its dramatic content or draw them by their 
economic interests.^ 

In 1823 it was apparent that the senators, most of whom 

^ Albany Argus, Aug. 24, 1824. " Mr. Crawford is the head and chief 
of the Radical party whose object it is to beat down and destroy all 
the most useful institutions of the Federal Government — the Army, 
the Navy, and fortifications, and Military Academy," A^. F. Commercial 
Advertiser, Nov. 4, 1823. The American printed much the same opinion, 
February 20, 1824. The name Radical had recently been introduced 
from England. "To prostrate the reign of jacobinism," wrote Clinton 
to C. G. Haines, on April 22. 1823 (Clinton Mss. Letterbook v), "we 
must arrange a party for the ensuing campaign on the ground of 
measure." The following day he wrote again of the levelling prin- 
ciples of the dominant faction. Cf. also John A. Dix's letters to Dr. 
George C. Shattuck, 1822-1824, Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc, vol. 1 (Boston, 
1917), pp. 143, 144, 147- 

^Albany Argus, Jan. 29, 1822, March 25, 1823. 

3 Martin Van Buren, Inquiry into the Origin and Course of Poliiixai 
Parties in the United States (N. Y. 1867), pp. 4-5. 



288 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

had been brought into office on the Democratic wave that 
followed the new constitution, were so completely under 
Regency control, that the majority of the legislature, no 
matter what the issue of the next elections, would probably 
declare for Crawford.^ Since the presidential electors were 
then chosen by the legislature in joint session, this would 
surely mean the choice of Crawford by the state, which 
might turn the balance in the Union, and thus enormously 
increase the prestige of Van Buren and his coadjutors. 
Yet of all the candidates, Adams was no doubt most popular 
throughout the state, and his supporters, joined by those of 
Clay, Calhoun and Jackson, took counsel as to how such a 
triumph could be circumvented. By April a plan had been 
devised to change the law, if possible, so as to give the 
choice directly to the voters." The personal followers of 
Clinton, who had been reticent upon the presidential ques- 
tion, but who here saw an opportunity to embarrass their 
chief enemies, instantly took ground in favor of this meas- 
ure,^ and there soon was organized a " People's Party " on 
the issue of the Electoral Bill. 

The story of the ensuing contest is not unfamiliar; yet 
certain elements so clearly show how old partisan antipa- 
thies were strengthened, that it must not be passed over. 
While old Federalists maintained with all their eloquence 

' A caucus of " regular Republicans," on Jan. 13, 1824, did formally 
support the congressional caucus proposals, Albany Argus, Jan. 16, 
1824. The best account of this campaign is that of C. H. Rammelkamp, 
" The Campaign of 1824 in New York," in Annual Report of American 
Hist. Ass'ti., 1904 (Washington, 1905), pp. 1 17-201. 

' J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 127. " By offering the 
Bill now you are sure to attract attention." R. King to J. A. King, 
April 20, 1823. On this matter Rufus King and Van Buren parted 
company; cf. the courteous letter of Van Buren, May 2, 1823, King 
Correspondence. 

* Hammond, vol. ii, p. 131. 



OLD COMRADES AND NEIV BANNERS jg^ 

that the common people must be trusted, the party known 
as Democratic declared that '' intermediate elections were 
recognized as a general principle of our system," that in- 
structions t(j assemblymen and senators were most im- 
proper, and that our institutions were not lightly to 1)e 
changed/ This debate engaged the legislature through the 
winter of 1824. The Democrats, led now by Major Flagg, 
and still in the majority even in the lower house, entrusted 
the proposal to a committee safely hostile to a change.^ 
An amendment to the federal constitution was recom- 
mended, but this could not be passed so as to affect the 
election of 1824; a shrewd Democrat brought in a plan b\ 
which if no candidate was given a majority at the polls, the 
matter would be settled in the legislature, knowing that 
among so many aspirants no one could get more votes than 
all the rest together: Senator Wright proposed a scheme 
complicated with such ingenuity that under it. as well, the 
legislature would have hatl the final choice. The session 
closed according to instructions, with nothing done. 

These obstructions and evasions aroused a protest 
through the state that could not be mistaken, and the vacil- 
lating Governor Yates, who had in January counseled cau- 
tion and delay, now. to the disgust of all the leaders of his 
party, called a special session for the coming August. 

" Like a war elephant, his bulk he shows. 
And treads down friends, when frightened by his toes." ^ 

^Albany Argus, e. g.. June 27. Sept. 23, 1823; Wright to Flagg. Nov. 
12, 1823. Flagg Mss. 

'The report of the debate may be found in the Argus. Jan. 9. 1824. 
et seq. 

^ Toast at a dinner in Utica, Argus, July 9. 1824. For an example of 
the art of invective, one should read a two-column editorial in the 
Argu^ of June 8, 1824, beginning: " It is a painful duty to expose to the 
world the errours and the inconsistencies of a man in whom the com- 



290 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



The sullen company that gathered on this summons in the 
sweltering midsummer of 1824 resolved to make their stay 
as short as could consist with parliamentary law. Silas 
W right announced to Flagg that he expected "to be at 
Albany, God willing, Sunday evening with the Utica stage, 
at the capitol at 12 o'clock Monday, to adjourn on Tues- 
day, and to start for home on Wednesday morning at the 
farthest." ^ Yet in spite of resolutions introduced by 
Flagg, who complained that every extra day cost the state 
a thousand dollars, the session dragged on for a week.^ 
Henry Wheaton of New York and Isaac Ogden of Walton, 
leaders of the People's Party, tried hard to force the ques- 
tion to a vote, but when at last the assembly passed the bill, 
the senate had adjourned, and joint action was impossible. 
Meanwhile excitement through the state grew day by day ; 
it was clear that the election in November would increase 
the power of the People's Men.^ 

A caucus in the spring had chosen Colonel Young as 
candidate for governor, but it was unlikely in those troubled 
days that he could, like Yates, come unopposed to office 

munity has reposed contulencc ....'" The governor had in January 
advised waiting for a federal amendment; now he said that since Con- 
gress had adjourned, there was no hope of that. Thurlow Weed claims 
the credit for influencing the governor to his decision. Autobiography, 

p. "S- 

DeWitt Clinton wrote as follows to Francis Granger, Jan. 25, 1824 
(Granger Mss., Library of Congress): "The executive is hors dc 
combat — Wotan's horse. Balaam's Ass, Livy's ox and Mahomet's Camel 
all harnessed together could not draw him out of the kennel of public 
indignation." 

' July 24, 1827, Flagg Mss. 

'^ Albany Argus, August 5, 1824. 

■' For a description of the extra session, see the Argus, Aug. 3-10, 
J824, and letters from an Albany correspondent to the A'. V. Evening 
Post, Aug. 4, 6, 7, 1824. The letters have some interesting comment on 
the "high-pressure" oratory of "little Major Flagg." 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 



291 



Early in April the Argics bitterly remarked that those 
malignants who could not rest content with regular nomi- 
nations, had planned a " delegated convention," acting on 
the single and unfortunate precedent of 1817/ This ob- 
servation was correct ; the delegates were soon chosen and 
came to Utica the following September six score strong, to 
settle on a nomination.* x\ll but five counties in the state 
were represented, though unfriendly critics poured derision 
on the tiny local meetings, which in many places had com- 
missioned these agents of the people.^ Conventions, they 
declared, were a favorite stratagem of Federalists; they 
had held one once at Hartford.* But in fact the work of 
the convention was not difficult, for there was little question 
as to whom they would select. 

The personnel of the new part)' had been no surprise to 
Demcx-ratic leaders. " With scarcely an exception." wrote 
Croswell of the Argus to Azariah C. Flagg, *' those who 
have been elected on the pretended ' People's ticket ' are the 
one and implacable enemy under a new name. The enmity 
will never die: and it is the more dangerous, because it is 
insidious and comes under an artful disguise." '' The cloak 
could not conceal from them the hoof of Clintonism. and 
unsteadied by alarm some now^ suspected the whole enter- 

' April 6, 9, 1824. The Argus called this procedure " irregular," but 
E. E. Hale, in his Seward, p. 65, points out that as the caucus method 
is natural to a party in power, so the convention is a natural expedient 
of an opposition. 

''■ N. Y. Evening Post, Sept. 24, 25, 1824. 

^ Argus, Oct. i, 1824. 

* See toast at Hudson, reported in ibid.. July 16. 1824. Of course. 
there had been quasi-conventions in the state before 1817. In 1792, for 
example, George Clinton was nominated for governor at a Republican 
meeting held in New York city, said to have been of " gentlemen from 
various parts of the state; " see C. A. Beard, American Governvtent and 
Politics (N. Y. 1917), p. 128. 

^ Dec. 9, 1823, Flagg Mss. 



292 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

prise as but a scheme to place their arch-opponent in the 
presidential chair. " I am fully satisfied," wrote one, " that 
if the law alluded to is changed, Mr. Clinton will get the 
vote of this state, and in that event he is sure of Ohio 
too." ^ Others, however, knew that though the majority of 
People's Men were old Clintonians and Federalists, a ma- 
jority likewise, albeit these two segments might not coin- 
cide, were now supporting Adams to succeed Alonroe. Yet 
these agrreed that Adams and the electoral bill would lose 
prestige by any public joinder with a fallen hero. To force 
alignment of the People's Men with the former governor, 
just before adjournment they introduced a resolution to 
remove that gentleman from his office as canal commis- 
sioner.- Though the minority, excepting a small number 
especially opposed to Clinton, protested vigorously, the 
resolution was easily put through."^ 

This was the one capital blunder of the Regency. The 
act was so outrageous that it could not be defended under 
the most liberal interpretation of the common law of par- 
ties. Clinton had served gratuitously for fourteen years in 
this office, which he filled with a unique propriety. This 
wanton and vindictive stroke revealed how cunning had 
developed in these managers at the cost of their morality. 
The resentment of the personal followers of Clinton con- 
firmed and strengthened their allegiance: old Federalists 

» Roger Skinner to A. C. Flagg, Dec. 9, 1823, ibid. The N. Y. Ameri- 
can, Feb. 3, 1824. ridiculed this fear, yet said that the principle was so 
important that no individual should be considered. Some Democrats 
feared the law would aid Clinton in 1828; see Onondaga Repository, 
quoted in Argus, Sept. 23, 1825. Cf. Thurlow Weed, Autobiography. 

' A good account of this is found in W. L. Stone's letter printed in 
David Hosack, Memoir of Clinton, p. 48. ef seq. The senate passed the 
resolutions with only three opposing votes. 

* See Henry Wheaton (an Anti-Clintonian People's Alan) to R. King, 
April 12, 1824. King Correspondence. 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 293 

expressed a ready sympathy witli their adopted leader who 
endured rebuke apparently for what they thought most 
honorable in his career; the western counties saw here an- 
other evidence that the Regency had no concern in their 
affairs. It was on this occasion that young William H. 
Seward threw off connection with the Democratic party.' 
Addresses of respect and confidence assured the late com- 
missioner that New York would not content herself with 
those splendid services which he had rendered in the past.^ 
In New York city the park was thronged with those who 
met to protest, and Matthew Clarkson, William Bayard, 
Nicholas Fish, Cadwallader D. Colden, Philip Hone and 
others drew up resolutions.^ At Albany there was a similar 
meeting and committee.* Wheaton, Ogden, Tallmadge and 
some other People's Men who had sought to keep their 
party clear of Clinton, now realized that this could not be 
done. 

At a meeting in the Tontine Coffee House in New York 
city his name was formally presented as a candidate for 
governor. ° He had proposed an amendment to the federal 
constitution as long ago as 1802 embodying the principle 
of the electoral bill, and had recommended such a law in his 

'Frederic Bancroft, Life of IVilliajN H. Seward (N. Y., 1900), vol. 
i, pp. 17-19. 

^ See answers in May 19. 1824 in Letterbook vi. pp. 99, 103, and two 
addresses from Buffalo, May 10, 18, Clinton Mss. 

•'' N. Y. Evening Post, April 19, 20, 1824. 

*This included Samuel M. Hopkins, J. H. Wendell and other Federal- 
ists, as well as Clintonians like J. D. Hammond, Elisha Jenkins, Gideon 
Hawley, John Tayler, etc., ibid., April 21, 22, 1824. 

5 A'. Y. Evening Post, Aug. 12, 1824. Clinton consented " from 
information that this measure will ensure victory, and with a view to 
crush intrigue,'' Clinton to Uri Tracy, Aug. 10, 1824. He had given up 
his presidential aspirations for the time being; see Stephen Van Rens- 
selaer to Clinton, Dec. 25, 1822, Clinton Mss. 



294 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

message of 1820.^ The Clinton movement grew through- 
out the state,- and many delegates to the Utica convention 
were instructed to support him and no other. Consequently 
it was no surprise that, in spite of able opposition, he was 
given more than twice as many votes as his nearest rival. ^ 
There was then presented an address from the trenchant 
pen of Gerrit Smith, complaining that the insult of the 
Regency disgraced the great " state of New- York — the first 
in population, the first in commerce, the first in wealth and 
resources, possessing her full portion of talent, and deeply 
interested in the administration of our national govern- 
ment." He spoke of the ensuing election of a President, 
but cleverly avoided any odious comparison of the com- 
petitors of Mr. Crawford ; " it would be idle and prepos- 
terous," said he, " to recommend candidates to disfran- 
chised men." * 

Positive proposals must always lose some members to a 
coalition, and this nomination, satisfying as it was to the 
majority, alienated certain elements. Whenever Mr. Clin- 

^ Albany Daily Advertiser, Extra, Sept. 27, 1824; Messages from the 
Governors, vol. ii, pp. 1039-1040. Clinton had written Francis Granger, 
Jan. 6, 1824: "An unhallowed attempt is now making to continue the 
usurpation of the election franchise from the people. How shall this be 
defeated? Let the people without reference to men but principles as- 
semble at public meetings and speak in a language that cannot be mis- 
understood." See also to same, Jan. 18, 1824, Granger Mss. 

2 See. e. g., Ithaca Journal and Cayuga Republican quoted in A'. Y. 
American, Aug. 18, 1824. and citations in Albany Daily Advertiser. 

» On the first ballot Clinton had 76 votes ; General James Tallmadge. 
31; Henry Huntington, 13; with scattering votes to five others. A few 
discontented delegates seceded from the convention. N. Y. Spectator, 
Sept. 28, 1824. Sometimes the title "People's Men" was applied ex- 
clusively to those who opposed both Clinton and the Regency ; see J. D. 
Hammond, vol. ii. p. iQQ- Tallmadge was selected for lieutenant 
governor. 

* Albany Daily Advertiser, Extra, Sept. 27. 1824. There was also a 
set of resolutions. 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 205 

ton was accepted as their leader by the old conservative 
party, he added his constructive and administrative talent 
to their treasury, but, with the exception of the western dis- 
tricts, he usually brought a personal following scarcely 
larger, if at all, than the tuimber which he drove ^way. 
When the choice of the convention was announced, the Nezv 
y^ork American declared that it could take no further part 
in the campaign/ and there were others of the " high- 
minded " group who, having hesitated, now refused to vote 
the People's ticket." Yet most of these anti-Clintonian 
Federalists were i\dams men, and some Bucktails now 
complained that they had mingled with the Democratic 
party only to destroy it.'' On the other hand, the Evening 
Post, which since it had been founded as a Hamiltonian 
paper had nursed a lively hatred of the Adams family, 
would not continue fellowship with those who preached the 
cause of the Secretary of State, whom they stigmatized as 
" the Benedict Arnold of Federalism." * Finding Clinton's 
fortunes linked with such as these, it regretfully abandoned 
him, to be an independent Democratic journal from that 
day to this.'' 

Nevertheless most People's Men were well content, and 
they began a spirited campaign. They held a multitude of 
meetings, in every county in the state, and issued broadside 

^ Sept. 25, 1824. 

* .v. y. American, Oct. 27, 1824; A'. F. Spectator. Sept. 14, 1824. 
Others are mentioned in Clinton's dippings, vol. iii, on the campaign of 
1826. This scrap-book collection of clippings made by his own hand, if 
we may judge by the endorsements, is in the collection of the N. Y. 
Historical Society. 

' IVatertowii Independent Republican, in Clinton's Clippings, vol. ii, 
p. 90. 

*Oct. 29, 1824. 

^ N. Y. Evening Post. Aug. n, Nov. i, 12, 30, 1824. It favored Jack- 
son but was content with Crawford. 



296 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

manifestoes, in a tumid style of rhetoric then not quite yet 
out of fashion, shrewdly adding names of discontented 
Democrats whenever possible/ There was quiet work 
among canal contractors who had control of many votes. "^ 
Democrats recalled the record of the Federalists in the late 
war, and the shifting course of Clinton. That this candi- 
date deserved appreciation for unpaid service as canal com- 
missioner, they declared ridiculous; he had received state 
money since 1797 amounting to over a hundred and sixty 
thousand dollars.'' 

In return the People's Men cited with a proper pride their 
leader's efforts in the cause of education, his many contri- 
butions to science and the arts, as well as the beneficent 
design of the canals.* They said if the electoral bill had 
passed, the November special session to choose the electors 
would have been unnecessary and thirty thousand dollars 
saved the state. '' They charged crimes against " King Cau- 
cus " in phrases with a reminiscent ring: " He has refused 
his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the 
public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws 
of immediate and pressing importance. . . .'' " 

' £. g., "The Regency in Despair" (Albany Daily Advertiser, Extra, 
Oct. 19, 1824) : " They will weep and wail and gnash their teeth, when 
the storm of popular fury shall overtake and utterly destroy them." See 
also "Republican Fellow- Citizen of the citv of Alhanv." 1824 (N. Y. 
P. L.). 

'•'J. C. Spencer to DeW. Clinton, Oct. 21, 1824. Cf. National Advocate, 
Oct. 4, 1823. 

'■^Albany Argus, Extra, Oct. 15. 1824, answered in Albany Daily 
Advertiser. Extra, Oct. 16, 1824; cf. " Gratuitous Services," Oct. 18. 1824 
(allinN. Y. P. L.). 

*" Circular of the People's Committee, P. Cassiday, chairman." Albany. 
Oct. 22, 1824: "Thomas Jefferson's Opinion of DeWitt Clinton" 
(N. Y. P. L.). 

*" Circular of People's Committee." 

* Albany Daily Advertiser, Extra, Oct. 18. 1824. 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 



297 



This was the first campaign in New York state where an 
appeal was especially directed to young men, as only since 
the freehold qualification had been taken off the franchise 
could they play an important part in politics. There were 
" Young Men's Conventions " and '' Young Men's Vigi- 
lance Committees " in many towns and counties, forming 
thus a precedent for years to come.' Likewise 1824 was 
the year when the convention system was accepted by the 
state. Seven years before, Republicans had gathered at 
Albany to name a candidate for governor, but delegates 
had been received without much scrutiny of their creden- 
tials, and the wh(jle proceeding, looked upon as quite irreg- 
ular, was not repeated in the next campaign. Now the 
People's Men in city wards and villages held meetings to 
name delegates to the conventions for the counties ; at these, 
committees of correspondence were selected and ballots 
taken as to Congressmen and members of the legislature, 
as well as delegates to the great convocation at Utica. 
Here, after Clinton and Tallmadge had been chosen as the 
leaders, and an address and resolutions drawn and carried, 
there was appointed a committee whose duty it would be to 
call another state convention to meet in 1826. In that year 
we shall see their Regency opponents follow their example, 
and for decades Utica and Herkimer were known as the 
respective meeting places.^ 

' Advertisements in N. Y. American, Jan. 4, 1824; Albany Daily Ad- 
vertiser, Extra, Oct. 18, 1824. " Young Men's [Albany] County Con- 
vention," speaks of similar conventions held by the Regency party in 
Schenectady and Troy. See also Broadside, " Young Men's Conven- 
tion," 1825, which speaks of committees for towns and villages, and 
" Address of the Democratic Republican General Committee of Young 
Men." Albany, Oct. 1825 (N. Y. P. L.). 

^Thurlow Weed. Autobiography. Popular ratification meetings 
were held; see, e. g., N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Oct. 2. 12, 1824. 
Utica and Herkimer were respectively appropriate. " While the eastern 
population seated within Oneida County, almost unanimously acied with 



298 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

The election gave a large majority to Clinton. It clearly 
showed what was the core of the new People's Party, in 
that the widest margins of this victory were in the old Fed- 
eralist districts. In New York city the southern wards 
were registered for Clinton, and the northern wards for 
Young. ^ Albany went overwhelmingly for its old favor- 
ite."" The largest majorities were here, and in Columbia. 
Washington and Rensselaer counties, all Federalist strong- 
holds, and in the west, Ontario, Genesee and Erie, where the 
canal made Clinton popular.^ The Argus now found vindi- 
cation of its claim that though the principles of Federalism 
had l3een repudiated, the members of that party still voted 
as a unit by a general understanding. It had been much the 

the federalist party, the immigration to Herkimer seems to have been 
more equally balanced ..." and to have followed the natural demo- 
cratic tendencies of its early frontier life, N. S. Benton, History of 
Herkimer County, p. 259. The Germans vi^ere Republicans, ibid., p. 261. 
The Democrats presented the following ingenious explanation for their 
adoption of the system : " The new constitution placing the election in 
the fall, has extended the interval between a legislative recommenda- 
tion and the election, from a few weeks to more than half a year. 
The interval would be continued to be employed by our opponents, as 
heretofore, in intrigues and factious combinations to deceive the people. 
From notions of expediency, then, the mode of nomination has been 
changed," Albany Argus, Oct. 9, 1826. However they made no provision 
in 1826 for another convention in 1828. saying that the caucus system 
might be revived, Albany Daily Advertiser, Oct. 20, 1826. 

' N. Y. American, Nov. 4, 1824. Federalists were elected aldermen 
and assistants in the first three wards, N. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 5. 6, 
1824. 

^Albany Daily Advertiser, Nov. 4, 1824. 

' N. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 15, 1824. The following counties went 
for Young: Chenango, Delaware, Greene, Lewis, Orange, Otsego, Put- 
ram, Rockland, Saratoga, Schoharie, Sullivan, Tompkins, Warren and 
Westchester, all old Republican counties; see Albany Argus, Dec 7, 
1824. The Argus in its editorials always called its opponents " the 
Federals." 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 299 

same in 1823, and would be true again in 1825.' After the 
Albany city elections of the latter year, the state paper 
laconically announced : "Average majority for the aristo- 
cratic ticket for aldermen over the republican ticket, 246." " 
" There is not a prominent member of the party whom they 
serve in this city." it said, the following month, '" who has 
not been member of the Washington Benevolent Society, 
and continued such during its existence." ^ It printed in its 
columns similar reports from many other papers.* All old 
leaders like Williams, Spencer, Kent, Piatt, D. B. Ogden, 
Golden, Benson, the Jays, Van Rensselaers and Van Vech- 
ten were People's Men. A caustic writer of the town ot 
Lansingburgh. in Rensselaer county, remarked : " The old 
Dutch power-proud aristocracy of the place are of the blue- 
light order of Federalists, real Tories in grain, call them- 
selves what they may." ' 

The presidential contest in the legislature after the elec- 
tion was marked more by bargain and intrigue than by the 
ascertainment and expression of the public mind. Though 
some conservatives declared for Clay or Jackson.'' most 

^N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Oct. 31, Nov. 6. 1823; Albany Argus, 
Nov. 14, 1823. Cf. N. Y. Evening Post, Oct. 30, 31, Nov. 4, 7, 1822, 
N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Nov. 7. 1822. and A'. K. Spectator, Nov. 
19, 1822. 

' Albany Argus, Sept. 30, 1825. 

3 Ibid., Oct. 20, 1825. 

♦See J. Piatt to Clinton. Jan. 3, 1823; Kent to Clinton, Dec. 31- 1822, 
Nov. 9, 1824, Jan. 23, 1826, etc.; Clinton to Van der Kemp, Oct. 6. 1824 
(Clinton Mss.) ; A^ Y. Evening Post, April 20. 1824; and Clinton'.s Clip- 
pings, Oct. 16, 1826, vol. iii. 

*H. G. Spafford to A. C. Flagg, March 3- 1826, and April j.^. 1827, 
Flagg Mss. 

* Most of Qay's support seems to have come from Repubhcans in 
the People's Party; but other conservatives stood for Jackson, e. g.. 
C. D. Golden, Robert Bogardus, J. B. Murray, etc. (see handbill ot 
Jackson meeting over which Morgan Lewis presided, bound with Flagg 



300 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



People's yitn supported Adams, a preference now reflected 
in the legislature. But neither he nor Crawford could l)e 
chosen without the help of followers of Clay. How by 
printing a split ticket behind closed shutters on a Sunday 
morning, and promising some seven electors to the Ken- 
tucky candidate, in case they could be used effectively, 
Thurlow Weed secured these needed votes, is all set forth 
in his own remarkable account.^ By a clever trick of this 
journeyman mechanic who held no public office. John 
Quincy -\dams became sixth President of the United States. 
Yet the technical details of how a practical psychologist 
accomplished his first triumph need not concern us here ; 
such tours d' esprit of party managers may for a time accel- 
erate, retard or modify the tendencies of nations, but they 
cannot start or stop or permanently direct them.^ 

As one surveys the progress of political affairs in New 
York state throughout the early twenties, he observes that 
these years, as properly as any others in its history, desen^e 
the well-worn title of " transition period ". The eighteenth 
century closed in 1821 ; its problems, most of them, had now 
been settled. What Mr. Madison believed " the most com- 
mon and durable source of factions " — the various and un- 

Mss.) ; Nicholas Fish. Ezekiel Bacon, etc. (N. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 
12, 1824) ; J. C Spencer and T. J. Oakley, W. .A. Duer to R. King, Feb. 
17, 1825, King Correspondence. 

' Autobiography, chap. xiii. 

'All factions (according to Weed) agreed in attributing to him the 
election of Adams, ibi4., p. 79. A somewhat similar stroke was accom- 
plished in 1825 by the Democrats, whereby the senators of that party 
introduced so many candidates for United States Senator, that no 
nomination could be made in that house, and hence no joint ballot could 
be taken. Thus instead of Ambrose Spencer being chosen, the election 
was deferred until the following year, when with a Democratic major- 
ity the Regency secured the election. Though not generally known, this 
plan was wholly the work of Silas Wright ; see Wright to Flagg, Jan. 
28, 1824, Flagg Mss. 



OLD COMRADES AND NEW BANNERS 



30: 



equal distribution of pro][)erty ' — still was present, and yet 
less clearly apprehended in those prosperous years when 
new land areas so welcomed settlers, than before or after. 
Parties were continued more from memory and habit than 
from calculated differences of interest; then, too, the joy 
of combat and the jealous competition for the honors of 
the state, guaranteed, as always, against an otiose content- 
ment. One harbinger of what the future would bring- 
forth, however, was seen in the alliance of the surviving 
Federalist group, rounded out by moderate Republicans, 
with the voters of the growing west. 

This region was no longer a frontier addicted to a doc- 
trinaire democracy. As a Puritan community, somewhat 
changed bx' transplantation, it still was earnest, active- 
minded and fond of enterprising measures; composed of 
immigrants from other states, it did not easily respond to 
state-rights sentiment; and with each new mile of the canal, 
its farmers and its millers felt more sympathy with the 
commercial men along the sea-coast. Here were the bases 
of permanent co-operation. How economic issues were de- 
veloped which deepened the divisions of the electorate with 
respect to sections, classes, temperaments and legal theo- 
ries, is to be the theme of the next chapter. 

' The Federalist, no. x. 



CHAPTER X 

Manufacturing Becomes Respectable 

" The internal concerns of New York,"' reinarked an edi- 
tor in 1822. " extensive as it is in territory, and with new re- 
sources unfolding themselves to public view, appear like 
those of a mighty and flourishing empire." ^ The simile 
which was to furnish the great commonwealth with its ac- 
cepted name already seemed appropriate. The following 
year, when the eastern section of the Grand Canal had been 
completed, Albany received the first small tow-boat with 
acclaim, as it previsioned what prosperity and dignity to 
New York state this simple herald announced.' In 1825, 
as the Seneca Chief brought Clinton through the last lock 
to the Hudson, " the thunders of cannon proclaimed that 
the work was done, and the assembled multitude made the 
welkin ring with shouts of gladness." ^ When the gov- 
ernor's party finally reached Manhattan Island, the demon- 
stration, with parades, illuminations and exulting oratory, 
came to its climax. 

^ N. Y. Spectator, Jan. 8, 1822. 

'^ Broadside, " Celebration of Passage of the first Boat from the Grand 
Canal into the Hudson, at the City of Albany, on Wednesday, October 
8, 1823" (N. Y. P. L.). See also J. Munsell. History of Albany 
(Albany, 1867), vol. ii. 

^Albany Daily Advertiser, Nov. 4, 1825. See the excellent account of 
the celebration along the canal, in W. L. Stone, Narrative of the Fes- 
tivities in Honor of the Completion of the Grand Erie Canal, etc. 
(N. Y., 1825), and A. B. Hulbert, Historic Hiahzvays (Cleveland, 1904), 
vol. xiv. 
302 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 303 

" Such strains shall unborn millions yet awake, 
While with her golden trumpet, smiling Fame 
Proclaims the union of the Main and Lake 
And on her scroll emblazons Clinton's name ; " 

handbills setting forth these florid sentiments were struck 
off from a press mounted on the printer's float drawn in the 
pageant, and were scattered through the admiring crowds/ 
The profits of the western farmers soon surpassed their 
expectations. Whereas before it took a hundred dollars 
and about three weeks to bring a ton of goods from Buffalo 
to New York city, now eight days and fifteen dollars were 
sufficient.^ Land west of Seneca Lake almost immediately 
advanced in price four-fold.^ The number of lake ships 
clearing from the port of Buffalo doubled in a year or two.* 
Rochester grew quickly from a little hamlet to a thriving 
city, and while visitors in their astonishment recalled the 
stories of Scheherazade, shrewd speculators who had 
marked the woodland into building-lots amassed consider- 
able fortunes.' The pioneer who had cut his painful way 

^ " Ode, by Samuel W'oodworth, Printer," Emmett Collection, no. 
11,422 (N. Y. P. L.). 

^ E. L. Bogart, Economic History of the United States (N. Y., 1914 
ed.), p. 211. 

^ James Renwick, Life of DelVitt Clinton (N. Y., 1840), p. 268. Julius 
Winden, " The Influence of the Erie Canal upon the Population aionq 
its Course," a Mss. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, shows how much 
greater changes in population followed from the canal in the western 
counties than in the Mohawk region. Property value likewise increased 
relatively toward the west, and over a wider area than the population. 
Because shipments may be made from any point on a canal the influence 
in property value was fairly continuous. Many foreigners settled in 
the towns because of the opportunity for unskilled labor. 

* Buffalo Gazette, in Clinton's Clippings, vol. iv, p. 20. 

* James Stuart, Three Years in North America (Edinburgh. 2nd 
edition, 1833), vol. i, p. 81 ; Basil Hall, Travels in North America in the 
Years 1S27 and 1828 (Edinburgh, 1830), vol. i, p. 53. It had ''sprung 



304 ARISTOCRACY I A' THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

into the wildeniess had hved to see a mighty transformation. 
" He can close his eyes.'" declared an orator. " and the un- 
broken forest is dark and waving before him; he wakes and 
the fruit of every clime is proffered for his acceptance." ^ 
Two and a half million bushels of wheat now found their 
way to Albany each year." In the decade after 1820 the 
increase of population in New York surpassed that in New 
England by over half a million, but the growth in the west- 
em counties was twice as rapid as in the older Hudson 
River region." 

More than two hundred boats, by 1826, were towed each 
week into the Albany basin from the Erie and Champlain 
canals, while a dozen steamers plied on scheduled time l>e- 
tween that city and New York, some of which could make 
the journey entirely within a summer's day ; yet neither these 
nor tugs and barges could exclude the white-sailed sloops 
from their accustomed pathw^ay.* But if Albany, now 
seventh city in the countn-. profited by trading with the west 
and Canada, and occasionally despatched a brig to the 
Antilles/ the metropolis at the river's mouth by its new 
connection with the teeming hinterland beyond the Alle- 
ghanies, became the foremost city of the western world. 

up like Jonali's gourd." remarked Col. Stone as he visited here in 1829, 
W. L. Stone, " From New York to Niagara," in Buffalo Historical So- 
ciety Pub., vol. xiv, p. 233. The gain in population between 1820 and 
1830 for Rochester was 421 per cent; Buffalo, 314 per cent; and Syra- 
cuse, 282 per cent; see L. K. Mathews. " The Erie Canal and the Settle- 
ment of the West," in ibid., p. 105. 

^ Speech of Judge Timothy Child. Rochester Telegraph, quoted in 
Albany Argus, Jan. 17, 1826. 

"^Albany Patriot, in Clinton's Clippings, vol. ii, p. 22,. 

* U. S. Census, 1870, vol. ii, p. 3. 

^Albany Argus, April 12, June 14, 1825, Sept. 12, 1826; H. G. Spafford, 
Gazetteer of the State of New York (Albany. 1824). pp. 15-16. 

* Albany Patriot, loc. cit. 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE ^05 

The years of painful readjustment following the Peace of 
Ghent, were now forgotten, and prosperity had come. 
When, in the spring of 1824, the canal had penetrated only 
through the Mohawk valley, three thousand houses were 
erected in the city of New York in anticipation; and the 
following year the papers spoke of capitalists moving hither 
in considerable numbers from the other states.^ A san- 
guine young man hazarded a prophecy, that with the passing 
of the generations New York might reach a population of 
five hundred thousand, and in a century, perhaps, a million.^ 
The merchants, clearly realizing the benefit of cheap carriage 
of commodities, sent a large committee under Philip Hone 
to Albany to take a part in the formal opening of the canal, '' 
and then expressed their gratitude to Clinton in a present 
of two handsome silver vases.* With the resources of the 
state and nation waiting for conversion into wealth through 
any agencies that could command sufficient credit, the men 
of business might well be expected to endorse improvements 
through the government's co-operation, with small regard to 
constitutional objections.'^ 

When the governor, in his almost endless message of 1825. 

' Francis J. Grund, The Americans in their Moral, Social and Political 
Relations (Boston, 1837 edition), p. 276; N. Y. American, Jan. 4, 1824. 
Sept. 10, 1825. The value of imports at New York in 1821 was $24,- 
000,000, and in 1825, when the canal was completed, $50,000,000. F. J. 
Turner, Rise of the New West, p. 35. 

' C. G. Haines in Washington Hall, N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, 
Nov. 13, 1823. 

* J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 205. 

* D. Hosack, Memoir of Clinton, pp. 190-192. 

^The confidence thus developed was probably an important reason 
why the American merchants weathered the English panic of 1825; see 
Broadside, "To the friends of internal improvement generally." 1826 
(N. Y. P. L.). "I am told that property has Rissen in New York very 
considerably in consequence of the Cannal," wrote John Jacob Astor in 
Switzerland to DeWitt Clinton, in Oct. 1824, Clinton Mss. 



3o6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

advised the building of a dozen new canals at state expense, 
with a turnpike and a railway here and there between, the 
merchants knew that they would profit by each enterprise, 
and were confirmed in their Clintonianism/ With lateral 
canals branching from the Erie, and those comiecting lakes 
and river systems, the prospect of development seemed 
limitless; Delaware Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, the St. 
Lawrence and the Hudson could interchange their commerce 
through the waterways of New York state.' A convention 
was arranged at which enthusiasts discussed these possibili- 
ties.^ Railroads were considered by some forward-looking 
men as a means of conquering space perhaps superior to 
canals, and John Stevens published an announcement that he 
planned to organize a company which with state subventions 
would lay tracks along the Hudson.* " This will doubtless 
be stigmatized by some as a wild, impracticable project," he 
admitted, " but before pronouncing judgment, let the thing 
be tried." And although this enterprise was long delayed, 
in 1826, a road was chartered between Albany and Schenec- 
tady,^ soon followed by another built from Ithaca to Owego, 
where horses for a time supplied the motive power. *^ 

1 Albany Argus, Extra. Jan. 5, Jan. 21, 1825; James Renwick. Life of 
Clinton (N. Y., 1840), pp. 274-276, 292. 

* See papers of " Hercules," reprinted from the Western Star, in the 
Albany Daily Advertiser, in Sept., 1836, particularly Sept. 13. 

* Broadside, " Convention Notice to the friends of Internal Improve- 
ment throughout the State," dated at Angelica, Oct. 22, 1827 (N. Y. 
Hist. Soc). The convention was held at Utica, Dec. 5, Le Ray de 
Chaumont, of Chaumont, chairman, Albany Argus, Dec. 13, 1827. 

^ .V. y. American, April 4, 1825. 

^ See Albany Argus, March 30, 1826, for the debate. Clinton was 
much interested in railroads; see his Clippings, vol. ii. See also S. 
Dunbar, History of Travel in America, vol. iii, chaps, xxxix-xlii. 

^Report of the President and Directors to the Stockholders of the 
Ithaca and Owego R. R. (Ithaca, 1838) in Cornell University Library. 
When the Syracuse and Auburn R. R. was opened in 1838, the rude cars 
were drawn by horses; see W. H. Seward, Autobiography, p. 3S6. 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 307 

As far as parties in the state took sides upon these numer- 
ous requests for grants of money, the Regency were less 
enthusiastic than Clintonians. Erastus Root, the speaker of 
the assembly for three terms after 1826, opposed with skill 
and firmness such appropriations, though he made exception 
of a state road which would run across his county/ Silas 
Wright suspected many if not all these projects, and other 
leaders tried to narrow the expenditures whenever possible. - 
It was claimed, upon the other hand, that the People's Party 
were more favorable to business men who wanted charters 
for their corporations, than suited the best interest of the 
state. While the Democratic legislature of 1824 would 
grant but three bank charters,^ the assembly of the follow- 
ing year, controlled by People's Men, allowed eighteen, 
though most of these were negatived when offered to the 
hostile senate; twenty-five insurance charters met alike fate.* 

The Argus scornfully referred to opposition papers as the 

' He had voted against the Bonus Bill ten years before in Congress, 
and had steadily opposed the Erie Canal plan, J. D. Hammond. Political 
History, vol. ii, pp. 242, 262, 319, 325. We shall see that local projects 
frequently brought sectional rather than partisan alignments. ^V. Y. 
Commercial Advertiser, Oct. 18, 1823; Fitz-Greene HaWeck, Writings, 
p. 265. 

^Albany Argus (supplement), Feb. 20. 1824. and M. Hoffman to A. L. 
Flagg, passim in Flagg Mss. The Argus claimed to be impartial. 

* Thurlow Weed, Autobiography, p. 106. Two of these were granted 
under extraordinary conditions. It must be remembered that from 1791 
to 1838 banks were chartered by special acts of the legislature, D. C 
Sowers, Financial History of New York State, pp. 48, 49. R. E. Chad- 
dock, History of the Safety Fund Banking System of New York 
(Washington, 1910), p. 247, shows that notwithstanding the growth of 
the state, from 1821 to 1825, when the Democrats controlled the legis- 
lature, there were only 10 banks chartered. 

* See comments in Schenectady Cabinet, quoted in Argus, May 15, 
1825, and Oneida Patriot, ibid., May 13, 1825. The Argus credited 
Wright with successful opposition, Oct. 30. 1826. For insurance char- 
ters and for loan associations, see ibid., Oct. 26, 1826. 



3o8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

servants of the moiiied corporations, and its editors warned 
loyal readers that no effort could be spared to insure a 
legislature " which will preserve us from an inundation of 
Banks and chartered speculations." ^ Much was said about 
the " Lobby Party," and it was charged that Henry Post, the 
governor's confidential agent in New York, was too often 
found in Albany in the interest of some Lombard or insur- 
ance company, and was a master of " log-rollers." " The 
Democrats declared that their opponents displayed the old 
Federalist recklessness with the people's money, and pointed 
out that their assembly had spent almost as much in one 
session, as had been spent by all the five preceding, which 
had been controlled by sounder counsels.' Jeffersonians 
who held that governments are instituted among men solely 
to assure the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness, might well look askance at such active aid to business. 
It was not surprising that such men should look upon 
John Quincy Adams with some disapproval. In his in- 
augural address he called to mind the roads and aqueducts 
of Rome as among the imperishable glories of the empire, 
and suggested that this nation might well plan like means to 
great material development. No sooner had the Congress 
met than he came forward with a program : Chesapeake Bay 
should be connected by canals with the Ohio and the Dela- 
ware; Lake Memphramagog should be joined with the Con- 
necticut; the National Road should be extended, and another 
built from Washington to New Orleans; islands should be 
sea-walled, lighthouses built, and harbors deepened. Our 
commerce should be guarded by a stronger navy, and na- 

•^ Argus, March 30, Aug. 17, 1826. 

-N. Y. American, Nov. 31, 1825; John Bigelow, " DeWiu Clinton 
as a Politician," Harper's Monthly, vol. 1. Lombards were a species of 
loan association. 

^ Argus, Oct. 19, 1826. 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 



309 



tional defense should be secured by military schools and state 
militia equipped and trained according to the national pre- 
scription. A great university, surveys, observatories, and 
exploring parties, were to advance the cause of science at 
national expense. An item later added to the scheme was a 
Home Department which would superintend all these activi- 
ties, encourage manufactures, and counsel states in their 
co-operation/ 

With the announcement of these bold proposals, in New 
York, as elsewhere, papers took sides for and against the 
administration, and old cleavages were deepened." Although 
a small minority of Federalists, like certain fellow-partisans 
of Boston, could not be reconciled to an apostate,^ most of 
those who had composed that part}'^ now supported Adams, 
and pronounced against those politicians who would cramp 
the proper function of the central government in the interest 
of so-called states' rights.* At least three quarters of the 
Clinton following were for the President."^ The voters of 
the western counties gave him their support, not alone be- 
cause of their New England memories or their old suspicion 
of the Regency, but because they realized that his program 

'Upon the publication of Adams's speech of Dec. 25 (J. D. Richardson, 
Messages and Papers, vol. ii, p. 319), Jefferson wrote to Madison, in- 
cluding a draft of " The Solemn Declaration and Protest of the Com- 
monwealth of Virginia," which was to have been published, had not 
Madison advised against it ; see Jefferson, Writings, vol. x, pp. 348-352, 
and Madison, Works, vol. iii, pp. 511-514. 

'^ Argus, Dec. 17, 1825. M. Hoffman to A. C. Flagg, Dec. 22, 1826 
and Jan. 8, 1827. Hoffman charged that Adams men favored internal 
improvement partly on account of patronage expected. 

' The N. Y. Evening Post represented this minority. See for con- 
ditions in Massachusetts, J. T. Morse, John Quincy Adams (Boston, 
1899), pp. 209, 217. 

*N. Y. American, Jan. i, 11, 14, May i. 3, 16, 1826. 

* J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 252. 



3IO ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

of appropriations for canals and roads throughout the 
farther west, would, if carried out, bring more commerce 
through their section and more grist to their flour mills.' 
If the city merchants had endorsed a policy of state improve- 
ment for the lower cost of transportation that it would bring, 
they enthusiastically approved these larger plans which 
promised much at small cost to themselves. 

The orthodox Democracy of New York state regarded 
this broader American system with aversion, if not horror.^ 
They cordially disliked the debts, monopolies, corruption, 
favoritism, and centralized control, which they alleged would 
follow from its operation. In 1824, Senator Van Buren 
took his stand against the policy in Washington, and after 
Adams' pronunciamento in December, 1825, he introduced 
a resolution stating that the Constitution gave no power to 
Congress to construct roads and waterways within the states. 
In April, 1826, he said that Congress could not vote appro- 
priations for such purposes, even if it left the building and 
the jurisdiction to the local legislatures. In May, he said 
that it could make no permanent arrangements for or with 
those private capitalists who might undertake such enter- 

1 Clay men had followed their leader into the Adams ranks. Clay had 
liked Crawford, but disliked his principles, as far as he knew them, and 
had dishked Jackson's personality, though he had no great fault to find 
with his principles ; see H. C. Hockett, Influence of the West on Polit- 
ical Parties to 1825, p. 139. It was typical that James Stuart, the 
English traveler, should find the canal agent with whom he talked an 
Adams man, Three Years in North America, vol. i, p. 75- 

^This is true after 1823, though not so clear before. The Argus, 
Jan. 14, 1822, had said: "We rejoice to find that a bill making an 
appropriation for repairing this [Cumberland] road has passed the 
Senate of the United States by a vote of 26 to 9" The I>emocratic 
assembly of 1822 passed on April 10 a resolution asking government 
aid in improving the navigation of the Hudson. See also attempts to 
get aid for canal building, in D. Hosack, Memoir of Clinton, p. 102, 
and remarks, J. C. Spencer, Argus, Feb. i. 1826. 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 31 r 

prises/ These views were shared by the other members of 
the Regency." '' The very power claimed to make these 
canals," wrote one, " is opix)sed to our Democratic prin- 
ciples." ^ 

The governor's opinion on these matters was the object of 
wide-spread interest and anxiety, especially among his fol- 
lowers, the great majority of whom endorsed the Presidential 
program. Not only had he gone with Morris in 181 1 to 
sohcit aid in Washington, but the following year the legis- 
lature on his urging had persuaded Ohio to petition for a 
grant of federal money for the Grand Canal in New York 
state.* Speaking to the senate and assembly in 1822, he had 
intimated that the western states then beginning waterways 
should be " assisted by the general government in carrying 
into effect the magnificent plans they had projected." ' In 
1824, there had been a movement to name Clinton for Vice 

1 Congressional Debates, 1825-1826. vol. ii, pt. i, cols. 20, 619, and 717- 
718. See W. N. Holland, Life and Political Opinions of Van Bur en (N. Y., 
1835), PP- 269-274, George Bancroft, Martin Van Bitren, pp. 116-120, 
and E. M. Shepard, Martin Van Buren, p. 113; Van Buren to B. F. 
Butler, Dec. 12, 1826, Van Buren Mss.; Van Buren to J. A. Hamilton, 
Dec. 20, 1826, J. A Hamilton, Reminiscences, p. 63. 

» Hoffman-Flagg correspondence, Jan. 8, 18. 22, 1827, Flagg Mss. 
Silas Wright, in the state senate, introduced a resolution similar in 
spirit to those passed in South Carolina and Virginia sustaining these 
contentions (see H. V. Ames, State Documents on Federal Relations 
(U, of Pa., 1906), no. iv,. He was successfully opposed by some old 
Federalists like C. D. Colden, and some People's Men like J. C. Spencer. 
Senator Jordan, a People's Man, then introduced a moderate resolution 
that Congress could not begin an enterprise within a state without the 
state's consent, and must yield the jurisdiction over the improvement 
to the state when finished {Argus, Feb. 2. 6, 7, 1826). It seems never 
to have come to a final vote (iV. Y. Senate Journal, p. 170) • 

* Hoffman to Flagg, Jan. 8, 1827, Flagg Mss. 

*W F. Gephart, Transportation and Industrial Development in the 
Middle West, Columbia University Studies in History, etc., vol. xxxiv. 
pp. IIO-III. 

^Messages from the Governors, vol. ii. 



312 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

President, so that he could more conveniently assist in na- 
tional development/ But since the state, in answer to his 
perseverance, had built its own canal, he professed to see 
grave danger in any interference by the federal government 
in such concerns, and in his message of 1825, he bitterly 
complained of the new doctrine that Congress must control 
exclusively the commerce " among the states." - It was not 
till 1827, however, that he spoke clearly on the jxDwer to 
construct canals and roads : " I think it due to a sense of 
duty and a spirit of frankness to say, that my opinion is 
equally hostile to its possession or exercise by, or its invest- 
ment in the national authorities." ^ But by this time, we 
shall see, Clinton and Clintonians had parted company ; this 
pronouncement was one signal of the separation. 

In 1826, however, the governor's prestige had suffered no 
decline, and the delegates who were convened at Utica nom- 
inated him by acclamation to continue in his office.* The 
Democrats, at Herkimer, though some believed it inexpe- 
dient to name a candidate,^ chose William B. Rochester, a 

' B. V. Tyler to DeW. Clinton. Feb. 2, 1824, and T. A. Emmett to 
same, March 22, 1824, Clinton Mss. 

^Albany Argus, Extra, Jan. 5, 1825. Clinton had spoken of himself 
as a states' rights man before, but not specifically upon this point 
(e. g. Clinton Clippings, vol. ii, p. 48). 

^Message of 1827. Albany Argus. Jan. 2, 1827; Letter to Moses 
Hayden, Jan. 14, 1827, Clinton Mss. 

* Utica Sentinel and Gaactte, Sept. 22, 1826. The convention was at- 
tended by most of the same Qintonian-Federalist delegates that had 
met in 1824. Gen. Tallmadge was not renominated for lieutenant- 
governor, as he had ruined his prospects by his action in the senatorial 
contest the year l>efore (Kingston Plebeian, Oct. 4, 1826), and Henry 
Huntington was finally selected for that ofifice. C. D. Colden, P. A. 
Jay and James Emott were mentioned, among others, for the place. 
The Argus was outraged because the convention used the name " Re- 
publican" (Sept. 25, 1826). 

^S. Wright to A. C. Flagg, Nov. 18. 1826, Flagg Mss.; Thurlow 
Weed to Francis Granger, July 5, 1826, Granger Mss. 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 



313 



young man from the town which bore his family name. He 
was known to favor all the doctrines preached by Henry 
Clay, and his selection was clearly in accordance with a prin- 
ciple, since oftentimes remembered, that a party by a nomin- 
ation may, perchance, attract some whom its principles and 
record would repel. "Availability " was further illustrated 
in their choice for second place, Nathaniel Pitcher, who 
lived within the valley of the Erie Canal, but who had a 
following through the " southern tier " because of his re- 
commendations as a state-road commissioner. Judge Ham- 
mond, the historian, who took an active part in the campaign, 
asserts that many politicians knew that Senator Van Buren, 
albeit outwardly agreeable, desired Rochester's defeat 
(though not that of General Pitcher), planning thus to form 
a coalition against Adams, with the re-elected governor. The 
" Little Magician,'' with clairvoyant apprehension, may have 
plotted the event which issued from the contest, but most of 
his associates, in ignorance or disapproval, gave their best 
support to Rochester and were chagrined when he was 
beaten/ As champions of the state road, Clinton and 
Pitcher were elected, though on opposing tickets, through 
the almost solid vote of certain southern counties.^ Most 
old Federalist districts gave reduced majorities for the gov- 
ernor, and Rochester made inroads in the west. In account- 

• S. Wright to A. C. Flagg, Nov. 18. 1826, Flagg Mss., shows that the 
Regency were not entirely in accord with Van Buren in this matter as 
implied by J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 232. Cf. W. B. 
Rochester to A. C. Flagg, and all letters from Hoffman to Flagg, be- 
tween Oct. 7 and the election, Flagg Mss. Geneva Palladium and 
Monroe Republican, quoted in Argus, Jan. i, 1827. M. M. Noah, the 
Democratic editor in New York city, at that moment in charge of the 
New York Enquirer, was neutral in the campaign, see Argus, Nov. 
6, 1826. 

'Cf. return in Schenectady Cabinet, Nov. 23, 1826, and Albany Argus, 
Nov. 20, 1826. 



314 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

ing for this change of sentiment, the student must take care- 
ful note of these suspicions that the builder of the Grand 
Canal did not longer represent the party of business enter- 
prise. 

Since his uncle had retired from the field of politics. Clin- 
ton's favorite candidate for President had been Clinton. In 
1822 and 1823, he had been hopeful of the nomination, and 
bitterly censorious of those who questioned his capacity for 
that exalted office; and for several years thereafter this pos- 
sibility was ever in his mind.^ His tour through Pennsyl 
vania, Ohio and Kentucky, in 1825, with its public dinners 
and receptions, was thought to serve these high ambitions. 
When, however, it was seen that the great contestants of the 
next campaign would be the President and General Jackson, 
he discountenanced for the time the hopeless efforts in his 
own behalf and came out strongly for the latter.- Adams 
he considered as his rival in the north. ^ while the mutual 
esteem between the military chieftain and himself dated 
back half a dozen years.'* In this preference, the governor, 
Van Buren, and the Democrats of southern states, were now 

' Letters in J. Bigelow, " DeWitt Clinton as a Politician," Harper's 
Monthly, vol. 1, pp. 415-417. The clippings collected by Clinton at this 
period show his assiduous interest. 

'A'^. Y. Statesman, Oct. 2. 1827; DeW. Clinton to C. L. Livingston, 
Nov. 22, 1827, Clinton Mss. ; J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, 
p. 256. 

*W. H. Smith, Charles Hammond and his Relations to Henry Clay 
and John Quinsy Adams (Chicago, 1885), p. 32. 

* Clinton wrote compliments to Jackson in 1819, and defended him 
against the strictures of General Scott (Clinton Letterbook, vol. iv, pp. 
3^-377), while Jackson replied: "To receive such an expression of 
friendly feeUng from so distinguished a man as yourself is peculiarly 
gratifying" (March 9, 1819, Clinton Mss.). In 1819 the general as the 
guest of the Tammany society threw the meeting into consternation by 
a toast to Clinton; see Gustavus Myers, History of Tammany Hall 
(N. Y., 1917 edition), p. 52. 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 



315 



in accord; the Argus, which in 1824 had charged Jackson 
with designs to ruin the Republican party/ the following 
year expressed a complimentary judgment, though earnestly 
deploring, here again with Clinton, all premature discussion 
of the presidential contest." For two more years it held to 
this position of benevolent neutrality.^ The " Federalist 
charges " of Van Buren's secret aid to Clinton in the state 
campaign, however, seemed substantiated in unwonted 
favors now exchanged between the old antagonists, and by 
1827 the coalition was divested of its clouds of mystery.* 

But it was a personal arrangement. If Clinton thought 
the great majority of his adherents who had applauded 
Adams and his enterprises, would follow with docility to 
the support of one whose policies were well suspected to be 
different,^ he merely evidenced again his old confusion as 
to his party and his person. Only a few old Federalists had 
favored Jackson in 1824, and, since Adams' program had 
been understood, these few had grown still less.® The edi- 

' May 18, 1824. 

'May 20. Nov. 11. 1825, March 30, 1826, and Clinton's Clippings. 
vol. iii, p. 31. 

"^ Argus, Jan. 30 (supplement), April 12, June 2, 30, July 4, August 
14, 20, 1827. It finally came out definitely as a Jackson paper on Sept. 
27, 1827. 

*W. C. Bouck to Van Buren, Nov. 17, 1826, Van Buren Mss. Van 
Buren endorsed Clinton's appointments to important judgeships, and by 
the support of Clinton, Van Buren was re-elected to the federal Senate; 
see J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, pp. 212, 214, 246, 255. 

* Silas Wright wrote to Flagg, Dec. 20, 1827 (Flagg Mss.), after con- 
sulting with Van Buren, Hoffman and two other New York congress- 
men that it was understood that Jackson would oppose the American 
System and appoint orthodox Democrats to cabinet positions. He 
said the appointees of Adams in New York state had nearly all been 
FederaHsts. 

'See supra, chap, ix; cf. N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Jan. 14, 1822, 
and Hoffman to Flagg, Dec. 22, 1826 and Jan. 8, 1827, Flagg Mss. 
Thurlow Weed for a time feared otherwise; see to Francis Granger, 
March 29, 1827, Granger Mss. 



3i6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

torial pen of Thurlow Weed betrayed a trace of gall when 
he observed: "If we could for a moment credit the story 
that the Governor cherishes a thought of support for both 
parties, we would admonish him of the folly of such 
hopes." ^ Papers like the Albany Advertiser and the New 
York Statesman, whose personal loyalty to the governor had 
reseinbled vassalage, now announced that this relationship 
had passed, and printed "Adams " at their colimm heads." 

There is no room for hesitation [decided the Buffalo Journal], 
for however an exalted opinion the people of the state may 
have for the talents and services of Mr. Clinton, they cannot, 
in a question affecting the prospective welfare of the nation, 
sacrifice their own judgments in a blind reliance on his prefer- 
ence — honestly formed, perhaps, but evidently founded in 
errour.^ 

Of sixty " federal newspapers " in the state, fifty-one re- 
mained with Adams.* 

It is clear that Federalists, and most of those associated 
with them, were disappointed in the governor. For ten 
years they had understood him to be pledged to policies ac- 
cording with the interests and philosophy ( tempered now by 
some experience), which had been theirs time out of mind. 
Whatever Van Buren may have thought, at least some mem- 
bers of the Regency quite clearly saw how futile was the 
hope of winning Clinton's party to the cause they stood for. 

^Rochester Telegraph, quoted in Albany Argus, March 30. 1826. 

'^Albany Daily Advertiser, June 22. 1827; Argus, June 23. July 2, 1827. 

^ Oct. 9, 1827. 

* Argus, March 10, 1828. Tliis paper said that of 49 Bucktail papers 
all but 7 were for Jackson. Tt spoke of the Adams party being made 
up of Clintonians and old Federalists like Elisha Williams, the Van 
Rensselaers, Col. Stone, Mr. Dwight, of the Hartford Convention, 
Charles King, of Dartmoor memory, and thousands of others. The 
Evening Post was a Clinton-Jackson paper; see on Sept. 24, 1827, and 
Wm. Coleman to Van Buren, , 1827, Van Buren Mss. 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 



Z^7 



To some the course of caution and neutrality, by which this 
merger was to be effected, was obnoxious; such subleties be- 
wildered honest Democrats, and merely for the gain of 
Clinton, even though he might be followed by a " little 
band," they were not worth the hiding and the plotting they 
entailed. Some questioned the integrity of their old enemy 
and thought at last he would announce himself for Adams 
These were for a bold profession of the principles of 
'ninety-eight, and to let those join them who found these 
attractive. If their party came to power it would have to 
be with the old creed acceptable to the south. They believed 
that Jackson could be easily converted to this faith, if he did 
not cherish it already, and urged an early caucus to present 
his name. 

Van Buren yielded slowly (delay, though never dalliance, 
marked his technic), for he thought these very notions as 
to Jackson's orthodoxy were percolating through the state, 
and he had learned in 1824 that caucuses can follow better 
than they can command.^ On the thirty-first of Januar)% 
1828, a Democratic caucus nominated the Old Hero.' No 
one knew precisely what were his principles, but the party 

'Charles Butler to Flagg, Geneva, Dec. 15, 1827. " Even Adams him- 
self will for our sake read the doctrines of Thomas Jefferson — and Mr. 
Jackson rather than not be President will reduce them to practice. 
Let us assert our principles. If it had been done when it ought to have 
been, we should have been followed by Virginia, S. Carolina & Georgia. 
Let us not wait until we must follow either C. & his Brotherhood — or 
the old Feds." "The Argus man is in favor of neutrality. Ask him 
which he will follow. Write me a categorical answer to that question." 
Hoffman to Flagg, Jan. 2, 1827 ; see also same Dec. 22, 1826, Jan. 8, 22. 
Dec. 21, 1827. "If Clinton is going to come out Adams as I have ex- 
pected he would, in God's name let him do it soon, and then we can put 
our rudder," Silas Wright to Flagg, Aug. 29. 1827. For Wright's im- 
patience of neutrality, see letter to Flagg, Dec. 20. 1827; Flagg's like 
feeling is mentioned in Hoffman to Flagg, Jan. 22, 1827. See also N. Y. 
Evening Post, Sept. 24, 1827, and Albany Argus, Sept. 26. 1827. and 
Coleman to Van Buren, April 17, 1828, Van Buren Mss. 

* J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 281. 



3i8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

leaders had assured themselves by this time that he shared 
their deep antipathies, and that his sympathies were with the 
frontier farmers and town laborers, rather than with the 
commercial capitalists and the old professional ruling class.' 
As to the manufacturers, recently observed to have an in- 
terest in the game of politics, these leaders had hestitated for 
a time, but with the influence of allies in the south, they were 
coming to a definite conclusion. 

Steam and steel, which in the last years of the eighteenth 
century, had brought to England sudden wealth and want. 
cheapening goods and men, were introduced on this side of 
the Atlantic somewhat later with less convulsive readjust- 
ments of society. As household industries were crowded 
out in country districts, fertile land was readily available to 
use the energies released. Yet because no cataclysm marked 
those years, one must not overlook the changes in the life 
and thought of common men that followed from the great 
development of manufacturing in New England and the 
middle states throughout the quarter-century after the em- 
bargo. Cotton spindles, for example, could not be increased 
from eight thousand to half a million in seven years,- with- 
out some economic consequences which would sometime 
register themselves in politics. 

In this development New York was second only to its 
neighbor, Massachusetts. In 1808, the Oneida Manufac- 
turing Society set up at Whitesboro the first cotton-spinning 
mill in New York state, ^ while two years later woolen yarn 

1 See Hoffman-Flagg correspondence, January to April, 1827. 

-E. L. Bogart, Economic History of the United States (N. Y.. 1916 
edition), p. 164. This gain was between 1808 and 1815. 

' M. M. Bagg, " The Earliest Factories of Oneida and their Pro- 
jection," in Oneida Historical Society Publication, 1881, pp. 112, et seq., 
"The New Hartford Centennial," ibid., 1887-1889, pp. 52-53- The first 
woolen mill in this section was begun in 181 1, and the first power-loom 
in 1817, Bagg, p. 117. See also Evarts and Ferris, History of Oneida 
County, pp. 243, 623. 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 



319 



was spun in two mills near Poughkeepsie/ Although no 
revolution was immediately effected, and in 1822 the gov- 
ernor could still report that the leachers in their asheries fur- 
nished the chief export of the state,- the progress was con- 
tinuous and steady till, with the middle 'twenties when 
canals and roads brought the material to mills and finished 
articles to customers, it was clear that a new epoch had 
begun. New industries were introduced even in the west 
and north, where the clangor of the factory bell, shattering 
the morning peace, might startle some stray panther roaming 
through the purlieus of the forest.^ No one could tell how 
great a change could yet be wrought, or what unsuspected 
energies could be applied. It was a proud day when, in 
1824, the Commercial Advertiser could announce that Mr. 
Ayres of Ithaca, who manufactured imitation Leghorn hats, 
would soon employ " one hundred females, some of whom 
are not more than eight years of age." * 

Industrial enterprise, especially in iron, hats and textiles, 
combined with lower cost of transportation to bring pros- 
perity to Albany, where in the three years after 1823 rents 

' E. Piatt, History of Poughkeepsic, pp. 83-85. 

'' Messages from the Governors, vol. ii, p. 1093. 

* After the Erie Canal was opened the western counties began to 
manufacture somewhat for the New York city market, V. S. Clark. 
History of Manufactures in the United States, 1607- 1860 (Washington, 
1916), pp. 347-349. Watertown grew rapidly because of the new cotton 
and woolen mills built there by Le Ray de Chaumount, Jefferson 
Republican, quoted in JV. Y. American, Feb. 21, 1823. House Documents, 
22nd Cong., 1st sess., no. 303, shows the influence of the Erie Canal 
on the distribution of industrial plants by 1833. 

^ In Clinton's Clippings, vol. ii, p. 51. Ithaca at the head of Lake 
Cayuga had a position not unlike that of Chicago, and it expected that 
the construction of railroads and of the canal to Sodus Bay in Lake 
Ontario, would make it the important center for central New York 
and Pennsylvania. But the hilly country immediately to the south de- 
terred the railroad builders and they later surveyed easier routes and 
laid their tracks to make connection with Rochester and Buffalo. 



320 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

advanced by half, and four-story business buildings were 
put up as fast as laborers could be secured.^ By 1827 there 
were sixteen textile factories in Oneida County giving work 
to seven hundred hands ; ^ in five more years there were 
twenty cotton mills alone, with three times as many em- 
ployees,^ and though Utica itself contained but few, " every 
stream from the neighboring hills was covered with such 
speculations." * Rensselaer and Dutchess Counties were 
not far behind. Auburn might have seemed like Gold- 
smith's loveliest village of the plain, observed an English 
traveller in 1828, " but for its numerous manufacturing es- 
tablishments." '■ The Genesee at Rochester ran spinning- 
mules and power-looms, as well as flour mills.*^ Industrial 
statistics do not fascinate the general reader, but when in 
scanning the long columns of the census figures, one notices 
that while the total ouptut of the state w-as more than 
doubling in the decade after 1825, the per capita production 
of textiles in the households fell from 8.95 yards to 4.03, 
he has come upon a fact of some significance.^ 

^Albany Daily Advertiser, Sept. 1. 1826; Albany Argus, Sept. 9, 12. 
1826. 

* From a table in a Utica paper noticed in the Rochester Telegraph 
and quoted in Argus, July 4, 1827, 600 of these hands were children. 

3 In Oneida, 2,354 were employed; Dutchess. i,974; Rensselaer, 1,621; 
Columbia, 1,285. Dutchess had also 6 woolen mills, Orange 6 and 
Rensselaer 5. T. F. Gordon, Gazetteer of the State of New York 
(Philadelphia, 1836), pp. 334, et seq. See also C. Benton and S. F. 
Barry, Statistical View of the JVoolen Manufactures (Cambridge, 
1831), p. 124. 

*E. T. Coke. A Subaltern's Furlough (N. Y. edition, 1833), vol. i, 
p. 215. 

*James Stuart, Three Years in North America, vol. i, p. 81. 

* Ibid., loc. cit.; also Basil Hall, Travels in North America, vol. i, 
P- 53- 

' R. M. Tryon, Household Manufactures in the United States 
(Chicago, 1917), pp. 304-307. The decline in household manufactures 
was naturally most sudden in Oneida County, where the figures ran 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 



321 



Iron manufactories — hloomeries, blast furnaces, and mills 
for nails and hoops — so grew in number that soon after 1830 
about ten thousand people were dependent on their oper- 
ation.' In 1827 there was opened in the city of New York 
the first hardware store dealing mainly in American goods. ' 
After 1825, it was seen that " fossil coal " would soon come 
into common use, making possible new processes and in- 
creased production, while charcoal-burners working in the 
woodland, one by one allowed their pits to cool and whiten, 
and in disgust sought out some other means of livelihood.^ 
Fertile land so cheap and so accessible in New York neces- 
sitated higher wages than in many other states, and these in 
turn gave stimulus to the invention of machinery.* Tn the 

from 12.65 yards to 4.83. Other counties where the change was rapid 
were Schenectady, Columbia, Orange. Washington and Ontario. 
Statistics for 1820 are also given by Tryon, p. 288. 

1 T. F. Gordon, Gazetteer. The iron workers in the decade after 1825, 
doubled in number, increasing especially in Essex County. At the same 
time capital was w^ithdrawn from old-fashioned industries hke asheries 
(due to easier transportation of the lumber itself by canal), distilleries, 
grist and oil mills. 

2 J. L. Bishop. History of American Manufactures (Philadelphia. 
1864), vol. ii, p. 387, note. 

* F. J. Grund, The Americans, p. 284. quotes a Pennsylvania state 
senate report of March 4, 1835: 9,541 tons were used in 1824; 33,699 
in 1825. This sudden increase was due to the opening of the Schuylkill 
mines ; another sudden increase came in 1828 when the Lackawanna 
mines were made available. .Anthracite was first used in the iron in- 
dustry itself in 1838, C. Wright, Industrial Evolution of the United 
States (Meadville, Pa., 1897), chaps, x, xi. 

* In Massachusetts and New Hampshire, only, were wages higher. 
Fishing and shipping doubtless had an effect similar to the Genesee lands 
in New York ; also the greater development of manufacturing made a 
greater demand for labor. Tn New York the average wage was $1 
per day, Timothy Pitkin. Statistical View of the Commerce of the 
United States of America (Hartford, 1835 edition) ; see charts in textile 
mdustry. See also F. J. Grund, The Americans, p. 274; Bishop's lists 
of patents for 1830, cited in J. R. H. Moore, Industrial History of the 
4merican People (N. Y.. 1913), p. 415. 



322 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

last years of the 'twenties it was realized that industry was 
changing; in the closely settled districts spinning-wheels and 
cottage looms were carried to the garrets, and apprentices 
and journeymen gave reluctant place to " hands ". ^ 

In the constitutional convention the chancellor, J. R. Van 
Rensselaer and Van Ness, had spoken their opinion of the 
manufacturer as a menace 'to the established order of the 
state, not as safely to be trusted with political influence as 
the merchant and the landlord. He could not then be 
counted on as an ally of Federalists. He was not as yet the 
personage that he became a generation later. He was not as 
yet a gentleman distinguished by inherited wealth, family 
portraits and a liberal education, but was still a glorified 
mechanic, merely, who had worked up from the bench. The 
prominent manufacturers like Benjamin Knower, who made 
hats in Albany, Peter Sharpe, the whip-maker, and Clark- 
son Crolius. the potter, were then thorough-going Demo- 
crats.^ Federalists, it would appear, were not yet interested 
in the enginery of mills. But in the middle 'twenties, when 
industrial profits became the subject of the gossip of the 
court-house and the banking office, their attitude was 
changed, and such old partisans as J. R. Van R-ensselaer, 
Ambrose Spencer. Robert Troup, Piatt, Gold and Philip 
Hone, began to take a part in the movement for " domestic 
industry," " and George Tibbits wrote an Essay on tJu 
Home Alarkets, charged with high enthusiasm.* 

1 As late as 1815 upon satisfactorily completing apprenticeship, a young 
man without property might be received as a freeman of the city of 
New York, N. Y. Historical Society Collections, [885, p. 399, cited 
by R. F. Seyboldt, The Colonial Citizen of New York City (Univ. of 
Wisconsin, 1918). 

^Albany Argus, Jan. 25. 1825; G. A. Worth, Random Recollections 
of Albany, p. 52. 

^ Argus, April 9, 1824. 

^ Essay on the Expediency and Practicability, of J m proving or 




STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 



323 



The sentiment was soon reflected in the press. In April, 
1825, William O. Niles published a prospectus of a paper 
to be known as the Albany Journal and Mercantile Adver- 
tiser, and to have for its concern " the encouragement of 
Commerce, Domestic Industry and Internal Improvement," ' 
while at Saugerties some three years later there appeared 
the Ulster Palladium and Mamifacturer's Journal devoted to 
the news about canals, machinery, railways and the tariff.^ 
The Patroon, catching the new spirit, determined to devote 
a portion of his hundred-thousand-dollar income ^ to the 
founding and endowment of a Rensselaer School in Troy to 
instruct young persons in the " application of Science to the 
common purposes of life," an enterprise begun in 1825.* 
Others urged that New York follow Massachusetts in work- 
ing out a system of public instruction in the uses of ma- 
chinery/' It was, then, the decade after 1825, that saw the 
rise of manufactures, as well as the great development of 
commerce ; ** and it was in this decade, we shall see, that the 
old conservatives, supplemented by some others, reorganized 
their party and took on the name of Whig. 

Creating Home Markets for the Sale of Agricultural Production and 
Raw Materials, by the Introduction or Growth of Artisans and Manu- 
factures, etc. (Philadelphia, 1829), in Library of Congress. 

' Argus, April 29, 1825. 

''Vol. i, no. I (May 3, 1828), is in the library of the N. Y. Historical 
Society. 

'* " Lette.s of a Traveller" to National Intelligencer, letter of June 
t6, 1825; T. F. Gordon, Gazetteer of New York, p. 651. 

* See "constitution" of the institute in the Albany Argus, April 
29, 1825. 

^ See Livingston Journal, quoted in Argus, April 8. 1825, commenting 
on the commission recently appointed by the Massachusetts legislature. 

* The commercial progress of New York was continuous in this 
decade, though elsewhere there was a depression till after 1830: see 
Emory Johnson and others, History of the Foreign and Domestic 
Commerce of the United States (Carnegie Institution, Washington, 
1915), vol. i, p. 220. 



324 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

While this interest was deepening among the men of 
wealth and business enterprise, the legislature, where the 
Democrats were generally controlling, gradually withdrew 
its patronage, in spite of all appeals. There had been at 
first a hearty disposition toward encouragement. In Janu- 
ary, 1817, eight essays signed by "An American " appeared 
in the Commercial Advertiser, proving that the manufactures 
of the state deserved subventions from the government at 
Albany, and the following month an act was passed exempt- 
ing textile mills from all taxation and their employees from 
certain ]\iry and militia service.^ By 1823 this law had met 
with some objection from supporters of the Regency.^ and 
their senators in 1824 put through a bill providing for repeal, 
though the People's Men, who then had a majority in the 
assembly, refused their sanction.^ But the following winter, 
despite the opposition of John C. Spencer and his col- 
leagues, the act was passed leaving woolen manufactures 
only as exempted from taxation.* Even in a few short 

' Passed I""eb. 28, 1827 ; Laws of the State of New York, 40th session, 
chap. 44. There had been a temporary law passed June 19, 181 2. for 
the encouragement of woolen manufacture, many sections of which 
were revived in an act passed April 15, 1817, ibid., chap. 240. A law 
appropriating $10,000 for the encouragement of household manufactures 
was passed in 1819, ibid., 42nd session, chap. 107. On the American 
Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manufacture, see Thomas 
Jefferson to Dominick Lynch, Jr., Monticello. June 26, 17, Corres- 
pondence of Thomas Jefferson, 177S-1826 (Boston, 1916). p. 230. 

'Remarks of Mr. Auger in the assembly, N. Y. American, March 4, 
1823. A new tax law made no mention of tlie exemptions (Laws, 
46th session, chap. 262), and during 1823 and 1824 there was a differ- 
ence of opinion as to whether they were still operative: see .V. >'. 
Senate Journal, 1824. pp. 87-89, 121. 

* The bill passed the senate, Feb. 17, 1824, ibid., p. 129; see remarks 
of Mr. Mclntyre, Albany Argus, March 4. 1825. It is interesting to 
note that five of the seven opponents of the bill were People's Men. 

* Argus, Feb. 15, 25. March i. 1825. In the course of the debate. Mr. 
Mclntyre, a People's Man of Montgomery County, spoke in favor of 



MANUFACTURING BECOMES RESPECTABLE 325 

years, it seems, the Democrats had come to realize that 
factories, like banks and docks, were not to be their citadels 
of strength. 

Protection of American manufactures, for which there 
had been no considerable demand in the early days of the 
republic, was practically afforded on the most extensive 
scale by the restrictive laws that marked the eight years 
after 1807/ When the signing of the Peace of Ghent had 
cleared the seas for commerce, the manufacturers prayed for 
artificial aid to keep their factories running ; and the farm- 
ers, especially in the fertile western counties of New York, 
who found themselves unable to supply the English market 
by reason of the corn laws, jo'ined in the demand for high 
protective duties on manufactured goods. This seemed to 
them a measure of retaliation against England, and possibly 
a means to build up large industrial communities at home 
w^here their food-stuffs would be needed." Their flocks, 
which grew^ in number year by year and gained in value 
with improvements from Merino crossings, gave them so 
direct an interest in the progress of the woolen manufac- 
ture, that they cordially supported the tariff of 1824. For 
a short time they were apprehensive lest the demand for 
factory^ hands should raise the wages of farm labor. Init 
were soon assured that the mills would hire chiefly girls, and 

continuing the exemptions, showing the famer's need of a home market 
in manufacturing towns, especially for his fine Merino wool : see ibid.. 
March 4, 1825. Mr. Vanderheuval, of St. Lawrence also made a vigor- 
ous protest; A'. Y. American, Jan. 17, 1825. In many districts the manu- 
facturing was still chiefly in the households. 

^ Of course, the principle was famiUar in the eighteenth century, but 
except for Hamilton's report, "other subjects so absorbed the attention 
of public men that no distinct opinion appear in their utterance for or 
against protective duties," F. W. Taussig, The Tariff History of the 
United States (N. Y., 1914 edition), pp. 11-17. 

* V. S. Clark, History of Manufactures in the United States (Wash- 
ington, 1916), pp. 268-279. 



326 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

thus instead of vying with the farmer would afford employ- 
ment to his daughters. Immigration and the farm ma- 
chinery coming into general use also helped prevent anta- 
gonism between the wool-growers and the manufacturers 
until the eighteen-fifties.^ Yet the small farmer who had 
no such close connection with industries and cities listened 
more respectfully to true Democratic doctrine on the tarifif. 
As to what this doctrine was and how it was developed we 
must now inquire. 

"^ Clark, p. 279. See also E. Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies 
in the Nineteenth Century (Boston, 1903) ; O. L. Elliott, The Tariff 
Controversy in the United States (Palo Alto, Cal., 1892) ; iStephen Van 
Rensselaer to Van Buren, May 14, 1824, Van Buren Mss., and Silas 
Wright to Van Buren, vol. vii, pp. 96-99. ihid. 



CHAPTER XI 

Political Distraction 

In 1824 but little opposition to protection had developed 
among the New York Democrats; objection to such meas- 
ures on the ground of legal right as well as of expediency, 
found expression only in an unimportant group of thorough- 
going Jeffersonians.^ While England preached the prin- 
ciples of Adam Smith but kept up tariff walls, the leaders 
readily admitted that America should give no heed.- In- 
deed it was the American, Federalist in all but willingness 
to work with Clinton, which most bitterly opposed the tariff, 
for, it said, the patronage now held out to the manufacturer 
would be withdrawn from commerce. Higher prices would 
be paid by farmers, making up the great majority of the 
consumers, to pay profits to mill-owners, whose evident 
prosperity, increasing with each year, required no sacrifice 
from trade or agriculture.^ If farmers '' have occasion to 
purchase anything of foreign growth or manufacture, and 
are able to pay for it, they can be quite independent whether 
the articles are manufactured in Old or New England, or 
elsewhere." * Protective tariff laws would stir resentment 
against the section where the manufacturing was carried 
on. and jeopardize the Union; even in that section they 

' Remarks of Mr. Mallory in the N. Y. Senate, Argus. Feb. 27. 1824. 
''National Intelligencer, quoted with approval by the Argus, Sept. 
12, 1823; A''. Y. American, Feb. 23, 1824. 
^ N. Y. American, Jan. 27. 1823. 
* [bid., Jan. 31, 1824. 

327 



328 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

would cause complaint against those who would seem to be 
the special beneficiaries.^ Protective schedules on this arti- 
cle and that would be included quite against the public in- 
terest, by the vicious practice of " log rolling." '" Handi- 
craftsmen would be out-competed by the great protected 
mills, which would draw their labor from the foreign rabble, 
cheap men devoid of skill, now flocking to our ports. ^ " In 
good time," lamented "A Consumer," " we shall become a 
nation of machines and machinery — a Chinese community, 
a manufacturing nation, nobly and exclusively aspiring to 
rival Brummagem and Sheffield in the manufacture of 
pepper boxes and crown glass." * 

Not all correspondents echoed the Arnerican's opinion: 
" Hamilton," to name but one, contributed a letter to show 
that moneyed men properly desired home industries in which 
their capital could l)e advantageously applied, while fathers 
welcomed steady employment for their sons, a condition 
which encouraged marriage.' But the editors went on 
writing free-trade argument about producing where pro- 
duction was the cheapest without regard to arbitrary lines 
upon a map; no one could persuade them, they declared, 
that " the vast ocean which rolls almost before our eyes 
was meant not for a highway, but for an impassible boim- 
dary to the intercourse of nations." " They indicated Mr. 

1 N. Y. American, Feb. i8, 1823; Feb. 17, 23, 1824. 

-Ibid., Feb. 17, 1824. This is the first instance I have seen of the use 
of the expression "log-rolling." It is used again in this paper. No- 
vember 31, 1825. 

' Ibid., March 5. 6, 1824. 

* Ibid., Feb. 21. 1824. "Brummagem" was. of course, the derisive 
epithet for Birmingham. 

^ Ibid., Feb. 22, 1823. He wrote also of the need for a balance of 
trade in America's favor, rather than the extravagant importations of 
1822. 

* Ibid., Feb. 25, 1823; March 4. 1824. 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 



329 



Webster, who then in Washington preached the doctrine of 
low tariff, as their ideal of statesmanship/ and cordially 
supported Gulian C. Verplanck, who strove in the assembly 
to control more strictly the incorporation of manufacturing- 
companies.' The Evening Post, then still reckoned as a 
Federalist paper, joined in the complaint that " nearly sev- 
enty persons concerned in manufacturing establishments 
had been elected to the present Congress," where they had 
carried through " an anti-commercial and mischievous 
bill." "■ Federal votes assisted to elect three anti-tariff Con- 
gressmen in November, 1824; it was clear that the shipping 
element within the conservative party in the state was 
prejudiced at first against the manufacturers.* 

But there were several reasons why the New York mer- 
chants could not comfortably hold this attitude. In the first 
place, their fellow-partisans within the upper Hudson and 
the Mohawk valleys found the new investments very profit- 
able, as we have seen: by 1828 the Argus was complaining 
that the Albany central committee formed by tariff men was 
but a " CHntonian-Federal caucus," since out of twenty-five, 
but three were genuine Democrats.^ Their New England 
colleagues, also, soon decided that commerce, important as 
it was, could not wisely check the growth of industry; 
Daniel \\^ebster in the vote of 1827 signalized this change 
of sentiment. The western farmers, with whom the city 
merchants had co-operated under Clinton, likewise wished a 
tariff. The New York Society for the Promotion of the 
Arts and Manufactures declared its object was to give '' re- 

i A'. Y. American, Jan. 11, May t, 3, 1826. 
'^ Ibid.. Feb. 23, 1824; Argus, March 12, 1824. 

*N. Y. American, Oct. 29. 1824; see also Xafional Advocate. Nov. i, 
1824. 
*N. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 6, 1824. 
" March 17. 20. 25, 27, 1828. 



330 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



lief to the agricultural interests of the state, by encouraging 
the growth, introduction and stationary residence within it. 
of a manufacturing population adequate to the consumption 
of its agricultural produce and to the fabrication of its raw 
materials." ' The staple farmers of the west who were 
near enough to the canal to market their surplus, it seemed, 
might seek to swing their party to support protection. 

Then, too, the New York merchants were pledged to 
Adams and his Secretary, Clay, who favored cheapening the 
inland transportation. But the administration more and 
more accepted the protective tariff as the leading feature of 
a broad program." 

While the planter and the merchant and the shepherd and the 
husbandmen [averred the President] shall be found thriving 
in their occupations under the duties imposed for the protec- 
tion of domestic manufactures, they will not repine at the 
prosperity shared with themselves by their fellow-citizens of 
the professions or denounce as violations of the Constitution 
the deliberative acts of Congress to shield from the wrongs of 
foreign laws the native industry of the Union.^ 

The historians of American ideals have given less atten- 
tion than they should to the enthusiasm for material pros- 
perity which characterized the devotees of the American 
system, not only in the times of Clay and Webster, but like- 
wise in the later years when a new Republican party ex- 
alted the full dinner-pail.* " An ideal," remarks a recent 

^ Argus, April g, 1824; see also letter from a Mr. Tod. of Greenfield, 
Saratoga Co., in A''. Y. American, Feb. 22, 1824. 

* Cf. comments of the Troy Sentinel and Northern Budget, quoted 
in Argus, June 11, }\x\y g, 1824. 

* J. D. Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. ii. 
pp. 413. 414. 

* E. D. Adams, The Power of Ideals in American History (New 
Haven, 1913) ; A. B. Hart, National Ideals Historically Traced (N. Y.^ 
1907). 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 



331 



writer, "is an emotionally colored conception of a state of 
things which would be better than the present." ^ Now the 
merchants of the great metrojK>lis, as we have tried to show, 
belonged to the dynamic party with the program of develop- 
ment by intelligent extension of the sphere of government. 
If the tariff was a necessary item of this program, they 
must take it. They also, very likely, calculated on a benefit ; 
if manufactures made the country rich, as had been claimed, 
there w^ould be a brisk demand for unprotected articles im- 
ported from abroad. Whatever was their course of reason- 
ing, the merchant wards in New York city in the election 
of 1828 cast their votes for x'Vdams although he was a tariff 
man." 

That a considerable portion of the capitalist party should 
seem willing that the tariff should be made a campaign issue, 
was a matter of some interest to the Regency. They be- 
came ingeniously evasive, and were accused of " non-com- 
mittalism " by their adversaries.'^ They replied that the 
question of domestic industrj- and its protection had no 
connection with party politics, and their newspapers re- 
ported the many tariff meetings without comment."* They 
deprecated all attempts of Adams men to claim the measure 
as their own.*^ When the Harrisburg Convention was an- 
nounced, Marcy. who for some time was an advocate, 
warned the delegates through the columns of his Biidget to 
" keep aloof from all party considerations ; let them attend 
solely to the object for which the convention is called." ^ 

But this was ignorant advice, since Clay had planned the 

* C. D. Burns, Greek Ideals (London, 1917), pp. v-vi. 

*Ar. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Jan. r, 1828. On the straight tariff 
vote of 1828 the New York congressmen voted against ; see F. J. Turner. 
Rise of the New West (N. Y., igo6). pp. 242, 320. 

^Albany Daily Advertiser, June 27, 1827. 

* Argus, June 22,, 30. July 4, 21, 1827. 

* Ibid., July 16, 1827. 

* Ibid., July 17, Nov. 29, 1827. 



332 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

meeting as a nucleus of a reorganized, revitalized American 
party, and he and other leaders were quite willing that pro- 
tection should become the leading question of political de- 
bate.^ Van Buren avoided reference to the tariff when he 
could. l)ut was known to be against protecting manufac- 
tures.^ Wright, Flagg and Hofifman favored tariffs for 
the farmer, if at all, while Marcy found his views so mo<l- 
erate that he opposed the high-protectionists." The Demo- 
crats in the assembly resolved that the woolens bill of 1827 
was too favorable to mill-owners.* Some manufacturers 
within the Democratic party, like Benjamin Knower, indig- 
nantly protested against this attitude and stanchly fought 
each proposition to investigate industrial profits, but they 
were impotent to change the party policy; " Peter R. Liv- 
ingston left the party largely on this issue.** 

' F. W. Taussig, Tariff History, p. 85. The A'. )'. Evening Post, 
now Democratic, on Aug. i and 9, 18^7, charged that the convention 
was a poHtical measure, though it admitted on Aug. 11, that many who 
went were unaware of it. Clay's intentions are set forth in a letter to 
B. W. Crowninshield, March 18, 1827; see Qtiarterly Journal of 
Economics, July, 1888, pp. 490-491. When the convention's proposals 
were introduced in Congress, there were 78 Adams men and 12 Jackson 
men for, and 14 Adams men and 100 Jackson men opposed, Nilei' 
Register, vol. xxxv, p. 57 (quoted by Taussig). Clay's first important 
speech in the campaign dealt largely with the tariff ( C. Colton, Life 
and IVorks of Henry Clay (N. Y., 1904), vol. i, pp. xiv-xvii), though 
the "bargain and corruption " charges subsequently played a large part. 

'Gabriel Mead to Van Buren, Feb. 13. 1827. Van Buren Mss. ; George 
Bancroft, Martin l^an Buren, p. 146. 

'J. D. Hammond, Life of Silas Wright, pp. 105-108; Wright said able 
men could sustain themselves, but some manufacturers who had made 
mistakes " want Uncle Sam to help them out," Wright to Flagg, Jan. 
16, 1828; Hoffman to Flagg, Feb. 3, 1828, Flagg Mss. 

* Argus, Feb. i, 1828. 

* Knower, Dudley and Olcott signed a circular letter calling for a 
tariff on the Harrisburg hues ; for this controversy see Flagg to Wright, 
Jan. 10, 22, 1828 and Wright to Flagg, Jan. 16, 28, 1828, B. Knower to 
M. Van Buren, Jan. 27, 1828, Van Buren Mss. 

* Hoffman to Flagg, Feb. 3, 1828, ibid., J. D. Hammond, Political 
History, vol. ii, p. 323-324. 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 



333 



When a protectionist convention at Albany, in 1827, de- 
clared it could not " but regret the zeal with which a por- 
tion of our southern brethren oppose a protection to other 
essential interests embracing vastly greater territory and 
population." ^ it touched the Democratic leaders where they 
were most sensitive. In March, the legislature of Virginia 
had called the tariff laws, " unconstitutional, unwise, un- 
just, unequal and oppressive," " and if the New York Demo- 
crats would hold their fellowship with the Virginians, it 
was clear that they must be an anti-tariff party. Yet the 
protective principle was so widely cherished through the 
north, that no politician from that section would essay a 
definite and open opposition on the floor of Congress. To 
meet the situation, the reader will remember, a hodge-podge 
of absurdities was carefully contrived upon a plan which 
Clay declared originated in Van Buren's fecund brain," and 
by which what seemed to be a measure of protection would 
have to be rejected by the votes of real protectionists, with 
no stigma fastened to the friends of Jackson. 

Silas Wright, then a member of the House committee on 
manufactures, explained the trick to southern representa- 
tives.* To win support (for to achieve success it must get 
votes from all except the honest friends of the American 
System) he called it an agricultural tariff, and declared, 
" The struggle is, no doubt, to be between the farmer and 
the manufacturer.'" But the manufacturers, who perceived 

' Argus, July 18, 1827. 

' Niles Register, vol. xxxii, pp. 167-170. 

* Clay's Works, vol. ii, p. 13. 

* F. W. Taussig, Tariff History, p. g6, and his authorities. 

5 Wright to Flagg, March 21, 1828. On Van Buren's request 
Wright prepared quotations on the tariff from Washington, John 
Adams, Jefferson, Madison, etc., and an estimate of the condition of the 
wool trade in New York state. He estimated that there were 30 or 40 
woolen factories employing $30,000 or $40,000 and between 15.000 and 



334 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

the springs within the trap, decided to accept the bill, al- 
though its schedules were ill-balanced and embarrassingly 
high, so that the principle of a protective tariff might be 
saved. The law was passed, to the disgust of its ingenious 
architects. From widely different causes, then, the support 
from New York state was unanimous, except for New York 
city and some counties on the lower Hudson.^ From that 
time forth the Democratic leaders threw off all pretence of 
protectionism. 

But the slowly formulating sentiment up<:)n the tariff was 
not the sole consideration of the Regency and their oppo- 
nents. There were other factors which delayed a straight 
and strict alignment of two parties in the state — a rivalry 
of sections for grants of public money, a strange fanatical 
enthusiasm, and a personal loyalty — each of which must 
briefly be reviewed. 

In i8o(>, a correspondent writing Clinton on the prospects 
of a state canal, said that he had been informed of " an 
attempt to embarrass that project by a petition which orig- 
inated in Kingston for a turnpike," and deplored " that 
contemptible locality of calculation " which cursed the 
plans of wise and able statesmen.* When the subject was 
debated in the legislature, " those opposing were the south- 
ern and middle counties, including Delaware." '' Yet as the 
work proceeded to completion and success, (opposition in 
those sections which would not l>e served, changed into a 

20,000 hands. He said there were probabl}- 5,000,000 sheep in the state, 
making about 30,000 men directly interested in selling wool. See 
Van Buren Mss., vol. vii, pp. 96-97- 

ip. J. Turner, Rise of the New West, p. 242 (map). 

^Frorn H. N. Butler, March 12, 1809. Clinton Mss. 

'George Tibbits to Benjamin Tibbits, June 13, 1828, in D. Hosack. 
Memoir of Clinton, Appendix, pp. 488, et seq. Tibbits mentions opposi- 
tion also from the eastern parts of Rensselaer and Washington 
Counties, with parts of others. 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 335 

strong desire for some similar accommodation. The 
achievements of Macadam in the north of England had 
aroused considerable attention in this countr}^/ and with 
promptings from the southern counties. Governor Clinton 
in his message of 1825 recommended the construction of a 
great state road to join the lower Hudson with Lake Erie. 
Opposition was immediately forthcoming. In the valleys 
traversed by the Erie and Champlain Canals the residents 
were satisfied with what the state had done and disliked to 
pay their share of taxes to build a turnpike through the 
"southern tier"; if Clinton had engaged to get the votes 
of the canal men for a road, as was alleged,^ he could not 
keep his bargain. However, a commission of inquiry^ was 
provided and a tentative survey begun. '^ Mass-meetings 
and conventions, labored essays and long editorials, attested 
public interest in the southern counties ; ^ but when the 
commissioners reported in 1826, the northern members of 
the legislature were all the more confimied in opposition.'' 
Partisan connections seemed forgotten in this all-absorb- 
ing contest. While Gamaliel Barstow, a People's Man 
from Tioga County, and General Root, whose home lay on 
the line surveyed, were leading advocates," Francis Gran- 

^ Albany Argus, Sept. 4, 1826. 

*C. E. MacGill, History of Transpnrtatioi: in the United States to 
i860 (Washington. 1917), p. 163. 

^ Hammond, who was one of the three commissioners, gives a full 
account of the matter in his Political History, vol. ii, pp. 201, 20Q. 219- 
225, 233, 235, 245. 

* Albany Argus, March i. June 16, July 15, 1825; May 29, June 2, 21, 
Aug. 30, Sept. 4, 1826; Albany Daily Advertiser, May 26, 1826. 

*The charge that the canal party had managed that the survey be 
run through difficult and impracticable country, where the road would 
be of little service, which is accepted as true by Miss MacGill, loc. cit., 
seems to rest on slight evidence ; cf. Hammond's account. 

'•Albany Daily Advertiser, Jan. 31. Feb. i, 1827; Albany Argus. Jan. 
2C. 1827. 



336 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

ger, an Adams-Clinton member of assembly from Ontario 
County, and Colonel Young were the severest critics of the 
measure. Granger favored lateral canals which would con- 
nect not only the central lakes, but the Susquehanna, the 
Qienango, the Chemung, and even the Alleghany rivers, 
with the great trunk waterway from Buffalo to the Hud- 
son. Road transportation, he maintained, was too expen- 
sive.^ Colonel Young addressing the Phi Beta Kappa Soci- 
ety of Union College, could feel no sympathy for southern 
farmers ; if their holdings were sequestered, they had prob- 
ably been purchased at a price appropriately low; if values 
would be raised by such development, let private enter- 
prise assume the risk. " Works of labor," asseverated this 
ex-commissioner of canals, "and the accumulation of wealth 
appertain to individuals, and not to governments. A gov- 
ernment might manage a farni, a manufactory, or a mer- 
cantile concern; but it would always be a losing business." ^ 
The southern members naturally accused him of some prej- 
udice in his political economy, and were not convinced. In 
1826 they voted for Clinton, who had espoused their cause, 
and the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, Na- 
thaniel Pitcher, who had pleased them as a road commis- 
sioner; their support, as we have seen, made possible suc- 
cess for both. 

Each party tried to claim the project of the road, as well 
as those of the canals that were to lead to Pennsylvania, or 
to connect the St. Lawrence with the Mohawk or, across 
the north, with Lake Champlain.^ They searched for ideal 

' Speech in the assembly, Advertiser, Feb. 12. 1827. 

' Samuel Young, Discourse, delivered at Schenectady, July 25, 1826, 
before the New York Alpha of the Phi Beta Kappa (Ballston Spa, 1826). 

* Advertiser, May 26, 1826, and Argus, May 29, 1826; Wright to Flagg, 
Nov. 19. 1826, Flagg Mss. ; N. E. Whitford, History of the Canal 
System of New York. vol. i, pp. 610. 741, 742. 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 337 

candidates who might be thought exchisively in favor of 
each local scheme, and who could, as the phrase went, ride 
all the hobbies/ But the state road did not perplex the 
party managers for long, as in April, 1827, the measure 
was defeated." Judge Hammond, counting over the sixty- 
four opposing votes in the assembly, found that fifty-five 
were cast by representatives of districts bordering on the 
great canals." The southern counties were obliged to wait 
some years till with the building of the Erie Railroad they 
gained access to the markets of the world. '^ 

But this distraction was as nothing in comparison with 
one which soon succeeded it. 

On the nth of September [runs a letter To the Public, printed 
by a citizens' committee of Batavia- in the autumn of 1826] 
William Morgan, a native of Virginia, who had for about 
three years past resided in this village, was, under pretext of a 
Justice's Warrant, hurried from his home and family, and car- 
ried to Canandaigua. The same night he was examined on a 
charge of Petit Larceny, and discharged by the Justice. One 
of the persons who took him away immediately obtained a 
warrant against him in a civil suit for an alleged debt of two 
dollars, on which he was committed to the jail of Ontario 
County. On the night of the 12th of September he was re- 
leased by a person pretending to be his friend, but directly in 
front of the Jail, notwithstanding his cries of Murder, he was 

^ Governor Clinton is accused by Hammond of recommending in 
his message more improvements than could possibly be accomplished, 
so as to please all sections, Political History, vol. ii, p. 244. See Michael 
Hofifman to Flagg, July 30, 1828, where there are indecorous jests 
about " the all-yielding Lady Granger." 

'^Albany Argus, Feb. 15, April 7, 8, 1827. 

* Political History, vol. ii, p. 245. 

* Miss MacGill in stating that DeWitt Clinton presented a report in 
favor of the railroad in 1832 (p. 595), like many others, confuses the 
governor with DeWitt Clinton. Jr. 



338 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

gagged and secured and put into a carriage, and after travelling 
all night he was left (as the driver of the carriage says) at 
Hanford's landing, about sunrise on the 13th, since which he 
has not been heard from.^ 

This paragraph with its nightmare thrills, sounding like an 
extract from a penny-dreadful, describes an incident which 
changed the politics of half a dozen states. 

While the authorities were searching for a motive for the 
crime, a rumor was recalled by neighbors in Batavia, that 
Captain Morgan had been about to issue from the press a 
book revealing the Masonic secrets. On the strength of this 
suspicion, writes a witness, some 

implicated the whole masonic fraternity. This, however, was 
not at first the general public sentiment, but when, as the in- 
vestigation proceeded, it was found that all those implicated in 
the transaction were masons ; that with scarce an exception, 
no mason aided in the investigation; that the whole crime was 
made a matter of ridicule by the masons, and even justified by 
them openly and publicly ; that the power of the laws was de- 
fied by them, and committees taunted with their inability to 
luring the criminals to punishment before tribunals, whose 
judges, sheriffs, jurors and witnesses were masons; that wit- 
nesses were mysteriously spirited away, and the committee 
themselves personally vilified and abused for acts which de- 
served commendation, the impression spread and seized a 
strong hold upon the popular judgment, that the masonic fra- 
ternity was in fact responsible for this crime.- 

1 This broadside, dated Oct. 4, 1826, is mounted with the Clinton 
Clippings, vol. iii. It seems particularly inappropriate that this should 
have taken place in "Sweet Canandaigua," remarked by all travelers 
for its tranquil loveliness ; see Francis Lieber, Letters to a Gentleman 
in Gemany (Philadelphia. 1834), P- 264, James Stuart, Three Years in 
North America, vol. i, p. 291, Basil Hall, Travels in North America, 
vol. i, pp. 42-43, 152, etc. 

''J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 272- The author having 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 



339 



A conviction thus arrived at that the Masons felt a Hve- 
Her concern as to the fortunes of their order than as to the 
common safety of society, a movement toward poHtical 
proscription made its way throughout the west. The repu- 
tation of this great fraternity in the Continental countries 
as a force opposed to true religion was remembered in 
America; the year before in Illinois a Baptist minister had 
been driven from the church because he held to Masonry/ 
The Masons seemed to take too prominent a part in public 
matters. It was estimated that most office-holders were 
members of the local lodges ; they assumed the right to lay 
all corner-stones ; ' a few years since at a convention of 
the order in Albany, the capitol building was reserved for 
their exclusive use, and none but Masons were allowed to 
enter. ^ On that occasion the governor, with great solem- 
nity, resigned the dignities of his grand-mastership to the 
greatest landlord in the state; power joined to mystery was 
dangerous. 

Why were these tylers. sentinels and masters of the veil? 

little immediate personal knowledge of this movement, secured a friend 
who had lived through it to contribute this chapter to his history. Ten 
chapters of Thurlow Weed's Autobiography form the most circum- 
stantial general account of the early history of the Anti-Masons, though 
it is colored by the writer's desire to present himself as consistent in 
his leadership in this cause from 1826 to 1834. Hammond's informant 
says : " It is impossible, too, to say whether these movements were first 
commenced by opponents of freemasonry to put down the institution, or 
by the free masons to put down the committee," vol. ii, p. 378. 

^Albany Argus, July 8, 1825. Perhaps the New England communities 
in New York and elsewhere remembered the suspicion of secret so- 
cieties which had developed in the Illuminati controversy in Massachu- 
setts in the 1790's; cf. Vernon Stauffer, New England and the Bavarian 
Illuminati (Columbia University Studies in History, etc.. 1918). 

'^Rochester Telegraph quoted in Argus, July 8, 1825. 

'Handbill in Clinton's Clippings, vol. iii, p. 68, and Albany Gazette, 
Oct. 4, 1825. 



340 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



What dire secrets could not bear the light of day? There 
were tales of high priests in their sacerdotal splendor, kings 
in velvet, " royal " officers of one name and another. Did 
not these things smack too much of monarchy? Such men 
could not be trusted with the people's liberties ; they should 
be voted out of office. In many towns throughout the west- 
ern counties in the spring of 1827 committees were ap- 
pointed to conduct the agitation; and tickets from which 
Masons were carefully excluded gained considerable suc- 
cess in spite of the desperate efforts of the order. 

jNIissionaries took the " blessed spirit " into other sec- 
tions of the state, and into parts of Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island and Connecticut, all through Vermont, into southern 
New Jersey, western Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio ; 
everywhere that the New England conscience was present 
to receive it. anti-Masonry became a power. ^ For it was 
an idealistic movement, often taking up with revivalist re- 
ligion, anti-slavery, temperance, nativism and other similar 
enthusiasms, and spreading its strange gospel by means of 
lecturing and preaching, and tons of tracts and papers. 
Hysteria is not a lovely thing to contemplate, yet the his- 
torian who follows this infatuation knows not whether to 
be saddened or amused. " It is almost impossible," re- 
marks a modern writer, " to believe that the actors in that 
curious extravaganza were our fathers, sober, earnest, God- 
fearing men." " 

Masons in the western counties, hopeless of elective office 
by the suffrages of neighbors, cried out in distress to Albany 
to be furnished with appointments by the Regency that they 

* Charles McCarthy, "The Antimasonic Party," American Historical 
Association Report, 1902, vol. ii, pp. 365-574, is a thorough monographic 
study of this movement in its political aspect. 

' A. W. Tourgee, Letters to a King (N. Y. and Cincinnati, i{ 
letter ix, p. 118. 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 



341 



be not lost beneath the overwhelming wave/ A man in 
Rochester wrote Major Flagg: " In your part of the state 
the Anti-Masonic projects may appear chimerical — they are 
not thought so here." " But the Plattsburgh editor was soon 
receiving papers in exchange that showed how formidable 
was the invasion even in his section : the Republican, which 
worried Marcy in the town of Troy; the Herald, at Pots- 
dam, where New^-Englanders showed eager interest, and the 
Anti-Masonic Champion of Sandy Hill/* Yet it w^as, of 
course, within the " infected district " in the west where 
this influence was strongest. Here delegates from several 
counties were convened in 1827, nominations made, and 
fifteen men elected to the assembly.* 

At first both parties shared in consternation, but circum- 
stances soon combined to identify the Anti-Masons with 
the Adams men. The agitation started in a district where 
the President was popular, and naturally the majority of 
the new enthusiasts had been his followers ; other Adams 
leaders through the state, hard-driven by the Regency, wel- 
comed any aid however unexpected. When Francis Gran- 
ger carried through a resolution in the legislature to inves- 

^ S. Starkweather to Flagg. Dec. 27, 1827, Flagg Alss. (Misc. Papers), 

* Ebenezer Griffin to Flagg, July 30, 1828, ibid. 

*J. H. French, Gazetteer of the State of New York, pp. 553, 573. 
678; F. B. Hough, History of St. Laivrcnce and Franklin Counties, 
P- 346. 

* These were distributed as follows : Chautauqua 2, Monroe 3, Otsego 
I of 3, Ontario 2, Orleans i, Genesee 2. Seneca 2, Wayne 2 of 3. Yates 
i; see Albany Argus, Nov. 21, 1827. There were only 13 "Federal" 
members elected. This was the campaign when Thurlow Weed, whose 
story that a body found in Lake Ontario was that of Morgan was 
widely doubted, was reported as saying that it was " good-enough 
Morgan till after election." Weed denied using these words (Auto- 
biography, p. 319), but admitted that he had said too many things he 
could not prove (Weed to Francis Granger, ]^Iarch 29 [1827], Granger 
Mss.). 



342 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

tigate the crime, it was thought the Democratic state ad- 
ministration did not show a proper sympathy. Jackson and 
the governor, now joined in pohtics, were high " adhering 
Masons," while the President was not. Indeed, it was not 
long before the conscientious Adams was proposing to help 
tear ojff the veil that sheltered such fraternities by publish- 
ing the harmless secrets of Phi Beta Kappa. ^ 

Among the leaders, Thurlow Weed, Francis Granger and 
William H. Seward soon recognized that Anti-Masonry 
might serve some other ends besides discrediting a ritual. 
Weed, who in 1826 was still working as a journeyman in 
Rochester, not far removed from poverty, had been active 
in the movement from the first, and was a member of the 
central committee who directed propaganda. Supported by 
a fund contributed by converts, he had started the Anti- 
Masonic Enquirer, which now preached the gospel to thou- 
sands of subscribers. When a meeting at Le Roy in March, 
1828, with many " seceding Masons " in attendance, de- 
cided to form a general party and hold a state convention, 
Weed was sent out on a roving commission to stir up in- 
terest and secure appointed delegates wherever possible.' 

The eastern Adams men, who saw what depletions the 
" blessed spirit " had accomplished in their party ranks, de- 
termined to recapture these western voters as soon as 
might be. They held their convention at Utica before the 
Anti-Masons, and, possibly on Weed's suggestion, they 
proposed for governor. Judge Smith Thompson, who took 
no stand on Masonr}^ with Francis Granger, an enthusiast, 
for second place. When the Anti-Masons came together 
they resolved, however, in spite of all that Weed could do, 

ij. Q. Adams, Letters on the Masonic Institution (Boston, 1847 
edition). 

*T. Weed, Autobiography, p. 341. 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 343 

"wholly to disregard the two great political parties," ' and 
in recognition of his work in the assembly, named Granger 
as their candidate for governor. On Weed's advice, that 
o-entleman declined, choosing the nomination by the Adams 

'1 

men, as first received. The radical element, disgusted with 
Weed's compromising, temporizing policy, nominated a fan- 
tastic person, Solomon Southwick, a seceding Mason; yet 
his following was but a remnant. It was obvious to Demo- 
crats that Anti-Masons were now numbered with their 
foes; by May, the Argus was complaining loudly of their 
menacing activities, and soon referred to them as " Fed- 
eralists." - The first days of bewilderment were past, and 
it was clear that the struggle in the state between the two 
old parties would not be interrupted, but would instead 
grow more intense. 

One other cause of the confusion in the party politics of 
1826 and 1827 was, as frequently before, uncertainty as to 
the position and the plans of Governor Clinton. Flow 
thoroughly and how long he could co-operate with Van 
Buren, and just how many personal followers he could 
count upon, were favorite themes of speculation in the lob- 
bies of the capitol and in the country stores. It was felt 
that his hegira to the Regency would date no epoch, that 
his position was unstable and promoted anything but peace. 
The Democratic leaders found that his presence in the Jack- 

1 Hammond, vol. ii, p. 387. "The Anti Masonic convention has just 
taken a recess of an hour to make up their minds on a resolution 
submitted by a committee appointed last evening 'that it is expedient 
for the convention to disregard all national & State poHtics & to make 
an antimasonic nomination of Governor & Lt. Governor.' This is the 
substance, I quote from memory. The resolution wras reported by a 
decided majority of the committee, notwithstanding it is believed that 
they were pressed to a different course by Weed & Wm. A. King," 
John Willard to Flagg. Aug. 5 [1828]. 

^Albany Argus, May 12, 1828, Feb. 26, 1829. 



'>44 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

son forces chilled the loyalty of many who had long been 
trained to hate him. But in February, 1828, these wrang- 
lings were unexpectedly concluded. On the eleventh of 
that month, while after a day's labor he sat talking with his 
sons, his head fell forward and he died ; '* his departure 
was as quiet as if he had dropped asleep." ^ 

Mingled with the awe at such a sudden taking off, there 
was an understanding that the future of the parties in the 
state could now be read more clearly. 

A great change must necessarily take place in the politics of 
our State dependent upon the death of Gov. C. [wrote Silas 
Wright] ; the greatest obstacle with our best men in taking 
the side of Gen'l Jackson was the fear that his success might 
incline to the elevation of Mr. Clinton, and but for that im- 
pression they would long since have espoused the Jackson 
cause openly. He has added something to the numbers, but 
unless I am much mistaken you will now find many a strong 
man's scruples at an end, and his hands loosed, and that the 
strength of Gen'l Jackson and of Democracy will be co-exten- 
sive in New York.- 

On the other hand, the cause of the " high-minded " schism 
in the old Federalist party was removed. And some Clin- 
ton men, who had hesitated when their leader had pro- 
claimed himself for Jackson, could now rest content with 
old associates. Perhaps no other event could have restored 
the clear distinctions of a dozen years before. 

The historian, however, cannot dismiss the great gov- 
ernor with such words as these. He has oftentimes been 
numbered with the most successful politicians of our his- 

* James Renwick, Life of Clinton, p. 296. Francis Granger, who ar- 
rived a few minutes after Clinton's death, wrote a graphic account to 
his mother, Feb. 12, 1828, in Granger Mss. 

^To Marcy, Feb. 18, 1828, with Flagg Mss.; see also Albany Argus, 
Feb. 27, 1828. 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 345 

tory/ but this estimate is founded on a hasty view of his 
career. When compared with Thurlow Weed, that master 
of adjustments, or with Van Buren, the suave and " non- 
committal," his deficiencies in this respect are patent. Per- 
suasiveness, the first requisite, he sadly lacked. He despised 
intrigue, and when he tried it, as in 1812, he fumbled so 
ineptly as to make him lasting enemies. He served no ap- 
prenticeship in politics, but by reason of his uncle's favor 
sprang to prominence at once; his natural hauteur was, 
therefore, never softened, and owning no superiors, his 
sarcastic wit went unadmonished. He was sparing in his 
thanks, and showed but small concern that his supporters 
should be favored; they were usually made to know that 
he could do without them. Personally incorruptible, he 
took no pains to hide a cynical belief that most other men 
were not. In his self-confidence he let the impression 
spread that every loyalty must center in himself. " His 
own aggrandizement," observed John Ouincy Adams, " has 
been the only test of his party attachments, and he has. con- 
sequently, been a mere man of coalitions." - In all the arts 
which qualify a politician he was indifferent or singularly 
clumsy. A close associate admitted that he was " person- 
ally unpopular." " 

Yet another friend declared him " the most popular man 
of his time." * And both were right, if " popularity " may 
have two meanino-s, since a man who cannot win affection 

o 

^ E. g., S. P. Orth, Five American Politicians (Cleveland, 1906), 
chap, ii; and J. Schouler, History of the United States of America 
(N. Y., 1894 edition), vol. ii, 409; E. Channing, History of the United 
States, vol. iv (N. Y., 1917), p. 397- 

^Memoir, vol. v, p. 38. 

' J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 270. 

* Ambrose Spencer, Defenjcc of Judge Spencer, quoted by J. S. Jenkins, 
Lives of the Governors. 



346 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

may yet be universally admired. Few public men could 
more deserve respect than he, for if he was no politician, 
he was more, a statesman; his interests were in measures, 
not in majorities. He stooped to low devices on occasion, 
not because he liked them, but that great ends might be 
served. Of his splendid services to New York state no re- 
capitulation here is needed; by intellect and faith and per- 
severance, he built great public works, improved the com- 
mon schools, encouraged every art that supported or em- 
bellished life, and devised fair laws as to the revenues and 
their expenditure, the military forces of the state, the care- 
ful supervision of the banks, sanitation in the cities, the 
care of the unfortunate, and the discipline and labor of the 
prisoners.' He had the gift of prescience. Carried for- 
ward by no Shelleyan passion to renovate the world, he yet 
summoned all his valiant energies to the creation of the 
common wealth, and showed the liberal's optimism in his 
confidence in education. His messages presented the pro- 
gram of a man who knew. As an administrator, both as 
mayor and as governor, he was resourceful and efficient. 
Such accomplishments entitle him to rank with the Amer- 
ican statesmen, the only one, it may be said, who played no 
part of much importance in the federal government. 

That he cannot be included with the greatest may be 
accounted for in a certain lack of composition in his prin- 
ciples and policies. Though he generally confessed a Demo- 
cratic creed, he essayed to lead the FederaHsts, and, indeed, 

'All these subjects were presented in the governor'^ messages in 
such a waj' as to result in legislation, see Messages from the Governors, 
vols, ii and iii, passim, especially the notes by the editor C. Z. Lincoln ; 
also E. A. Fitzpatrick, The Educational I'iews and Influence of DelVitt 
Clinton. S. L. Mitchill, Discourse on the Character & Scientific Attain- 
ments of DeWitt Clinton (N. Y., 1828), G. de Beaumont and A. de 
Tocqueville, Du systeme penitentiaire aux Etats-Unis (Paris, 1836), 
p. 6, etc. 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 2,A7 

in that time and place, his tastes associated him more natur- 
ally with the aristocracy. He expressed himself on all 
occasions, and no doubt sincerely, as the steadfast friend 
of states' rights, yet other interests that he cherished, such 
as the internal development of America and the growth of 
manufacturing, would prosper better under another theory 
of government ; merchants, engineers and capitalists cannot 
see the boundaries of states. Having long disliked Vir- 
g-inia, he could not be successful in the Democratic p^rty; 
yet had his principles allowed him he could not rise to 
leadership among the National Republicans, since that en- 
tailed a close co-operation with Adams, of whom he was 
inordinately jealous as his competitor for honors in the 
north. Death came, perhaps, when he had done what he 
was fitted best to do. 

The campaign of 1828 was said by many to be the most 
exciting in the history of the state. ^ It was the first in 
which the people had participated so directly in the election 
of a President; it presented a choice between two well- 
marked personalities, whose differences in governmental 
policies were defined more clearly than had been the case in 
any other closely fought political contest since the Revolu- 
tion of 1800. It was apparent to observers that Jackson 
was more popular than Adams, because he was " consid- 
ered the sterner and more inflexible republican ;" - he was. 
as the public were assured in an elegant inscription on the 
campaign banners, prepared to "go the whole hog." * 

His partisans accused the administration of intrigue to 
defeat the people's will, of extravagance, and of maintain- 
ing an aristocratic civil service. They deplored the cunning 

'James Stuart, Three Years in North America, vol. i, p. 2Z2,- 
2 Ibid., vol. i, p. 76. 

'Thomas Hamilton, Men and Manners in America (Philadelphia 
edition, 1833), vol. i, p. 18. 



348 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

by which the guileless Anti-Masons had been hoodwinked 
into a disgraceful coalition in the state/ On the other 
hand, the Adams men expressed their admiration of the 
bold constructive platform of their leaders. At Ballston 
Spa, for instance, a meeting praised the high protective 
tariff, and drew up an address entitled " The American 
System " : 

The present administration of the general government [they 
declared] is at the head of a great system of policy that prom- 
ises to elicit the enterprise, — enlarge the resources, — increase 
the wealth, — and promote the independence of our country. 
.... It is for its adherence to this system of policy, so con- 
genial to our situation, — so inseparable from our prosperity, — 
and so honorable to our character, — that the present adminis- 
tration has been assailed. - 

The Regency, concerned as deeply in the outcome, at 
their Herkimer convention brought forward their best can- 
didate for governor. Van Buren, the tactful chief who made 
no enemies; and they associated with him on the ticket 
Judge Enos T. Throop, who had lately sentenced the luck- 
less kidnappers of Captain Morgan, but who disapproved 
of Anti-Masonry. The nomination of lieutenant governor 
was considered of unusual importance, since if Jackson 
were successful, it was well known that Van Buren would 
be summoned to his cabinet.^ The canvass proved the 

' E. g., the resolutions of a Republican meeting at Edinburgh, N. Y., 
in Saratoga Sentinel, Oct. 7, 1828. 

^Ballston Spa Gazette. Nov. 3, 1828. 

* Silas Wright was considered for governor, but was dismissed as too 
young; see Ebenezer Griffin to A. C. Flagg, Rochester, July 30, 1828. 
Nathaniel Pitcher desired renomination, but he had been too much 
involved in the state road controversy, and was now in ill health. 
The Regency's experience with Mr. Crawford led them to attach im- 
portance to the latter consideration ; see letters from Hoffman, July 30. 
1828, from R. H. Walworth, Nov. 17, 1828, and from John Targee, 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 349 

wisdom of the choice, for Van Btiren was elected governor 
by a margin of some thirty thousand votes, though not by 
a majority, for of the total Solomon Southwick had about 
an eighth.^ The counties in the east voted on the old lines; 
" the real Federal counties have gone against us," wrote 
^lichael Hoffman,' and Van Buren acridly complained 
about the " manor influence." ^ The whole region around 
Albany, together with Montgomery and Oneida, the north 
and northwest slopes (excepting Clinton), and Queens, were 
registered for Thompson, while of the country west of 
Cayuga Lake each party had about a third.* In the city of 
New York, the three southern wards, constant in their 
Federalism from the first, now cast their votes for Thomp- 
son and the President." Adams and Rush, throughout the 

Feb. 10, 1829, Flagg Mss. Judge Hammond understood it was because 
of Pitcher's deficiencies in education. Political History, vol. ii, pp. 
287-288. 

'It was said that if the extreme apostles of the "blessed spirit" had 
been content to vote for Thompson. Van Buren would have been 
defeated; but this combination was impossible as they would have 
insisted on a thorough-going program which the adhering Masons 
among the followers of Adams and Clay would have refused to sup- 
port. Hammond's judgment on this matter is uncharacteristically hasty; 
see Political History, vol. ii, p. 289. Weed had realized as early as 
August that there was little hope for Adams (Weed to Francis 
Granger, Aug. 26 [1828], Granger Mss.), and was certain of defeat 
when the Adams men would not nominate Granger for governor. 
Gerrit Smith wrote Judge Carroll (March 14, 1828, ibid.) that Granger 
was too young, and this may have weighed with the Judge in bringing 
forth Thompson (see Weed to Granger, Oct. 26, ibid.). 

» To Flagg, Nov. 8, 1828, Flagg Mss. 

^ " The Manor influence here was exerted to an extent unknown for the 
last 20 years," Van Buren to C. C. Cambreling. Albany, Nov. 7, 1828, 
Van Buren Mss. He said the Federalism of '98 seemed risen from the 
dead. 

* See maps in Charles McCarthy, The Antimasonic Party. 

^E. Williams, New York Annual Register, 1S30, p. 218; N. Y. Even- 
ing Post, Nov. 10, 1828; A'. Y. Morning Courier, Nov. 11, 1828. 



350 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

State, received only five thousand less than Jackson and 
Calhoun/ The last President to be chosen on his record as 
a first-class statesman soon left the White House. 




ELtCTIOrf foRGOVERNOR, \62.& 



For all the bitterness of the campaign — the "Coffin Hand- 
bills," which set forth the cruelties ascribed to Jackson 
when he invaded Florida, the slanderous broadsides dealing 
with the General's marriage, and the reckless charges as to 
" bargain and corruption," were outstanding features ^ — 
travelers remarked how decently the country elections were 
conducted; no Scotch drunkenness or shameless English 
bribery disgraced the voters at the polls. ^ After the hurri- 

^ See comment in J. S. Jenkins, Lives of the Governors, p. 439. 
- See Thurlow Weed's Atttobioyraphy, pp. 307-308, for that politician's 
honorable course regarding these handbills. 
'James Stuart, Three Years in North America, vol. i, pp. 233-238. 



POLITICAL DISTRACTION 351 

cane of oratory and deluge of print, society resumed its 
wonted way. " The morning after election all is quiet, the 
sea is calm as if a heavy rain had fallen upon it. There 
hang the staring handbills with their enormous imputations 
and caricature exaggerations, now lifeless, tasteless, and 
without any farther effect or use than haply to point a 
moral." ^ Yet many felt that the campaign, with its talk 
of the American System on the one hand and Democratic 
simplicity on the other, had draw^n a clearer line between 
the parties. 

The Aristocracy and the Democracy are arrayed against each 
other [wrote Michael Hoffman the week the victory was an- 
nounced]. If we will now avow our principles and reduce 
them to practice in a judicious system of reforms in the state 
and federal governments, the country will prosper and the 
Democratic party prevail. We must reduce both the number 
and the salaries of officers, civil, naval and military. Make 
them work harder, live more economically, and, of course, live 
longer. I fear only the excess of Government, and consider 
occasional reforms as indispensable." 

But the " excess of Government." as Hoffman chose to call 
it. would nevermore be charged against the old aristocracy, 
as such, with their theories of political privilege and social 
precedence.^ The aristocracy was already being rapidly 
transformed into a business party, who took political equal- 
ity as an accomplished fact. 

* F. Lieber, Letters to a Gentleman in Germany, pp. 25-26. 

'' Michael Hoffman to A. C. Flagg, Nov. 8, 1828, Flagg Mss. 

"Cf. C. L. Becker, "Nominations in Colonial New York," American 
Historical Review, vol. vi, p. 261. " The principal difference between 
the federalists and the Adams republicans was. that the former intended 
to be the guides, and the latter the ex-ponents, of the people in carrying 
out the policy specified," Alexander Johnston, in Lalor's Cyclopedia, 
vol. iii, p. iioi. 



CHAPTER XII 
Tom, Dick and Harry Take a Hand 

In the great debate of 1821 the Federalist delegates had 
warned their innovating colleagues that novel and perplex- 
ing problems to the state would follow from a grant of 
universal suffrage, and that the newly enfranchised rabble 
of the towns would lay a spoiling hand upon the guaranties 
of property. Those who had survived in 1829 believed 
they saw a melancholy vindication of their fears. Indus- 
trial wage-workers, whose number had increased with such 
rapidity, had discovered that the " equality thus far attained 
was only equality before the ballot-box, not equality before 
the conditions of life, or even equality before the law." ^ 
It was noticed that they felt themselves already a consider- 
able portion of society, expected more importance, and were 
determined to exact some legislation in their own behalf. 

There was a tendency, observable among employers, to 
standardize the working day in industry as from sun to 
sun, unfairly following the precedent of agriculture, while 
the workers claimed that more than ten consecutive hours at 
the bench partook of slavery. They wanted laws not only 
to insure these proper limits, but special statutes with re- 
spect to woman and child labor: they must have legal 
security of wages by mechanics' liens and protection against 

' The section by Miss Helen L. Sumner in the History of Labour in 
the United States, by John 'R. Commons and associates (N. Y., 1918), 
vol. i, pp. 169-33S, sets forth the principal facts about the labor move- 
ment in New York politics between 1827 and 1833. and may be con- 
sidered as superseding previous accounts. 
352 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 



353 



seizure of their tools to satisfy their creditors. A broader 
interest, which was given the foremost place in all their 
tables of demands, was their zeal for free and tax-supported 
schools/ In New York city nearly half the children did 
not go to school, because their parents could not pay tuition 
fees of private institutions or would not take the bounty of 
the Public School Society." In spite of all the efforts of 
Clinton and his predecessors, eighty thousand children still 
remained unschooled throughout the state. ^ Equality of 
education could alone make sure a democratic government. 
" It is false, they say, to maintain that there is at present 
no privileged order, no practical aristocracy, in a country 
where distinctions of education are permitted." * 

Another wrong the workers thought should speedily be 
righted was patent in the law and custom of imprisonment 
for debt. In 1830 five-sixths of those incarcerated in the 
jails of New England and the middle states were there 
upon complaints of creditors, the majority for debts of less 
than twenty dollars. In this oppression New York held a 
sad preeminence.^ To give but one example, it was re- 
ported that in Monroe county in a single year there was 
about one imprisoned debtor for each ten families.** Called 
together by the Spirit of the Age, the radical paper of the 

^ Commons, etc., vol. i, pp. 171, 181. 

- W. O. Bourne, History of the Public School Society of the City of 
New York (N. Y., 1873), p. in, and Working Man's Advocate, May 
I, 1830. 

3 Mechanics' Magazine, August, 1833, quoted in Commons, etc., vol. 
i. p. 182. 

* Thomas Hamilton, Men and Manners in America (Philadelphia, 
1833), vol. i, pp. 39, 161. 

'' F. T. Carhon, "Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt in the United 
States," Yale Review, vol. xvii, pp. 33^-344, and Reports of the Prison 
Discipline Society of Boston, especially for 1830. 

• Working Man's Advocate, Mar. 27, 1830. 



:^r,4 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

town of Rochester, a convention of the Friends of Liberal 
and Moral Principles bought the freedom of all debtors in 
the jail.^ It is hardly necessary to remark that a poor man 
might any day be victimized through malice or revenge; 
the reader will recall that William Morgan had been thrown 
into a debtor's cell for a trivial sum. 

The workingmen protested against the ruinous competi- 
tion of prison labor, and the masons of the city of New 
York refused to work with stone cut in the shops at Sing 
Sing.- They bitterly complained of laws and doctrines that 
stamped their unions as conspiracies, and opened prison 
doors to those who struck for better wages or conditions. 
The militia system they unreservedly condemned. Not 
only were the training days a joke as far as military service 
was concerned, and more important for conviviality than 
for defence, but the loss of three days' wages was an item 
in the worker's budget. The rich man could stay away and 
pay twelve dollars fine, as many did, but the mechanic had 
his choice between the drill-field and the jail. It was com- 
puted that the system cost the workingman four times as 
large a fraction of his income as a capitalist who lived upon 
the proceeds of a hundred thousand dollars.^ 

The laboring classes cherished a suspicion of all banks, 
whose paper money of fluctuating value in their weekly pay 
caused such uncertainty. Auctioneers' monopolies kept 
prices higher than they should be, and were resented most 
by those who had the least to pay.* Witnesses and jurors 
should have a fairer compensation, and litigation should be 

^ J. B. McMaster, The Acquisition of the Political, Social and Indus- 
trial Rights of Man in America (Cleveland, 1903), pp. 106, 109. 

' N. Y. Evening Post, June 22, 1830. 

•' Commons, etc., vol. i, p. 180. 

* Cf. H. Secrist, "The Anti-Auction ]\iovement of 1828," in Annals 
of IVisconsin Academy, vol. xvii, no. 2. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 3-5 

made more speedy and less costly/ All these survivals of 
the old prescriptive privileges which barred the way to true 
democracy and that universal justice which was certain to 
come with it, must be swept away, else of what avail were 
ballots? To insure these changes honest simple men must 
be entrusted with the office, and wise laws enacted; then 
crime and misery would straightway be diminished. "The 
aristocracy or men nominated for their influence are unfit 
to be legislators for the great mass of the people." " 

In April, 1829, the workingmen in New York city held 
some meetings to resist the movement of the employers to 
extend the working day beyond ten hours, and appointed a 
committee to effect their purpose. This common action was 
so formidable that the employers soon desisted, and the 
committee felt itself at liberty to use its prestige toward 
accomplishing political reforms. A party soon was organ- 
ized upon the precedent of one which had been formed the 
previous summer in Philadelphia, the first labor party in 
the world. ^ During October, resolutions were drawn up 
v^'hich embodied most of the demands that have here been 
outlined, and a ticket for the assembly was devised, consist- 
ing of a printer, a house-painter, a brass-founder, a white- 
smith, a cooper, a grocer, two machinists, two carpenters 
and a physician: the Working Mans Advocate now ap- 
peared to preach the doctrines, with the motto : ''All chil- 
dren are entitled to equal education, all adults to equal 
property, and all mankind to equal privileges." Some in- 
road was made into the ranks of Tammany, and one man 
was elected from the ticket, while others had considerable 
support, the physician being last.* 

^ Commons, etc., vol. i, p. 2'8>2. 

' Working Man's Advocate, Oct. 31, 1829. 

^ Commons, etc.. vol. i, pp. 169, 195. 

* A good account, shorter than Miss Sumner's, may be found in F. T. 
Carlton, " The Workingmen's Party of New York City," Political Science 
Quarterly, vol. xx (1907), pp. 401-415. 



356 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

The party first fell under the direction, or perhaps it were 
better said, the domination, of Thomas Skidmore, an ad- 
mirer of Thomas Paine and an agrarian reformer of the 
most thorough-going type. In his plan " the equal division 
of the property of all who died in any given year was to be 
made among all those coming of age during the same 
year." ^ But most " Workies," as the members of the party 
were inelegantly called, had no such revolutionary purpose, 
and Skidmore, taking off about a hundred followers, yielded 
place to Robert Dale Owen, Frances Wright, and George 
H. Evans, the editor of the Advocate. Owen soon out- 
lined a scheme of guardianship in education by which par- 
ents would resign control of their children to the state, after 
the Platonic theory, and this extreme proposal likewise 
alienated many who desired only simple practical reforms." 
So there came to be three factions, each claiming to be 
orthodox and each in its own paper berating the two others. 

But though disturbed by these internal quarrels, the move- 
ment spread, and in 1830 meetings were convened at Al- 
bany, Troy, Kingsbury, Lansingburgh, Hartford, Saratoga 
and Glens Falls, along the Mohawk at Schenectady and 
Utica, at Auburn and Salina, and in the western counties at 
Palmyra, Canandaigua, Ithaca, Geneva, Rochester, Batavia 
and Buffalo." Several local tickets were surprisingly success- 
ful, and a state convention nominated candidates for gov- 
ernor and other offices. " Workeyism " in New York city 
daily grew more formidable. When the common council 
planned to celebrate Evacuation Day, the workingmen de- 
cided to parade in honor of the July Revolution which had 

1 Carlton, op. cit., p. 402. 

■^ For this period of R. D. Owen's career see his Threading My JVay 
(London, 1874). 

3 Commons, etc., vol. i, pp. 260-263. 281 ; J. D. Hammond, Political 
History, vol. ii, pp. 330-33I- 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 357 

lately 1>een reported from Paris. The original proponents, 
with some reluctance, consented to a combination pageant, 
which is described in a somewhat mordant humor by the 
English Tor}% Captain Hamilton : 

Then came the trades. Butchers on horseback, or drawn in a 
sort of rustic arbor or shambles, tastefully festooned with 
sausages. Tailors with cockades and breast-knots of riband 
pacing to music, with banners representative of various gar- 
ments, waving proudly in the wind. Blacksmiths, with forge 
and bellows. Caravans of cobblers most seducingly appareled, 
and working at their trade on a locomotive platform, which 
displayed their persons to the best advantage. . . . ^ 

The captain could not approve of workingmen so conse- 
quential ; 

A butcher on his steed so trim, 

A mounted butcher was to him, 

And he was nothing more.* 

Yet this undeniably represented voting power, and voting 
power must be respected. The Anti-Masons, hopeful of at- 
tracting their support, soon declared for the abolition of 
imprisonment for debt and a thorough reform of the militia 
system.'' But the Democrats could offer more than prom- 
ises; their majority, in 183 1, finally wiped out the debtor's 
prisons, despite the opposition of the pettifogging lawyers, 
the state printer (who profited by the necessary legal ad- 
vertisements), and the business men, especially rum-sellers. * 

' Thomas Hamilton, Men and Manners in America, vol. i, pp. 39-40. 
Chapter x of this work, giving the author's view of the political changes 
which must come from the development of manufacturing, is unusually 
interesting. ^ Ibid., p. 44. 

3 C. McCarthy, "The Antimasonic Party." American Historical As- 
sociation Reports, vol. ii, pp. 404-405. 

*F. T, Carlton, "AboHtion of Imprisonment for Debt," pp. 343, 344. 
The Anti-Masons, not numerically important in the legislature, were 
solidly for this measure, W. H. Seward, Autobiography, pp. 191-192. 
There was a resolute but unsuccessful attempt in 1834 to repeal the law. 



358 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



When Tammany came out for a mechanics' lien law, it is 
estimated that about four thousand voters returned to the 
Democracy, from whose ranks they had originally seceded.' 
An economist has observed that " the Democratic party 
from 1829 to 1841 was more truly a workingmen's party 
than has been the case with that party or with any other 
great party in the country since.'' ' 

Many Clay men who had no taste for Anti-Masonry, 
joined the Workingmen in an attempt to keep them inde- 
pendent of the Jackson party,^ and preached the benefit to 
labor of high protective duties. The evils of an unre- 
stricted competition with the pauper mill-hands of Great 
Britain and the continent, became a favorite theme of ora- 
tors. Now and again some critic pointed out that tariffs 
increased prices, and that workers had to purchase clothes 
as well as make them; nevertheless the impression grew 
throughout the northern cities that the workingman's chief 
object of solicitude should be the thickness of the envelope 
that held his pay, and that in some way this dimension 
was in direct proportion to the height of the protective tariff 
wall.* So the wages argument found some favor for the 
American System among the laborers, as that of the home 
market had secured the grain- and wool-producing farmers, 
and a faction of Clay Workingmen in New York city in 
1830 helped National Republicans to office, while elsewhere 
through the state there were coalitions. It was by such ai'l 
in Auburn that William H. Seward, though not yet thirty 

' G. Myers, History of Tamuiany Hall, p. 99. The law that was 
passed, however, apphed only to New York city. Commons, etc., vol. 
i. P- 329- 

*R. T. Ely, The Labor Movement in America (N. Y., 1900), pp. 42-43- 

*J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, pp. 330-331. 

* G. B. Mangold, The Labor Argument in the American Protective 
Tariff Discussion (Univ. of Wisconsin Economics and Political Science 
Series, vol. v, no. 2), pp. 35-36, 71, 79, 81. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 359 

years of age, was elected to the senate of the state by a con- 
siderable majority/ and in the campaign of 1832 a certain 
Samuel Stevens, a Workingman, was nominated for lieu- 
tenant governor by the Anti-Masons.' In 1834 Silas B. 
Stillwell was found by Whigs to be available for the same 
office, partly on the ground that he had been a shoemaker.^ 
Thus by quarrels among themselves, by the art of poli- 
ticians, as well as by the imputations of religious unbelief as 
followers of the infidels, Skidmore. Owen, Evans and Miss 
Wright, the Workingmen were broken as a political organ- 
ization, though, as is the case with most third parties, not 
until they had brought to pass or hastened several of the 
great reforms they earnestly desired. Besides the debtors' 
and mechanics' measures, which were actually enacted into 
law, educational reform received an impetus from their dis- 
cussion, and the old militia system narrowly escaped annihi- 
lation by the legislature in 1830 and was reformed in 1831, 
although it survived in law till 1870.* The party could en- 
dure with equanimity the thundering denunciations of the 
old Federalist press, and the epithets of "mob*' and "rabble" 
and the "dirty shirts," while they saw their efforts bring 
about such democratic gains. ^ 

^ E. E. Hale, Jr., JVilliam H. Seward, p. 80; F. W. Seward. Life of 
Seward, vol. i, p. 176. 

* W. H. Seward, Autobiography, pp. 78-79; see also F. Granger to 
T. Weed, undated, pp. 28-29, in Granger Mss. 

* D. S. Alexander, Political History, vol. i, p. 403. 

* Chapter 80, Laws of 1870. All military laws before this provided 
for assembly of the reserve militia at least annually but after 1846 there 
was no such assembly, as a law of that year prescribed only a nominal 
fee, of fifty cents, for absence. This operated in fact as a general poll 
tax. See Annual Report of Adjutant General for i860; Chapter 350, 
Laws of 1840; Chapter 270, Laws of 1846; and Chapter 447, Laws of 
1862. 

* See -V. Y. Commercial Advertiser, quoted in Working Man's Advo- 



360 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Meanwhile the ancient war went on between the Regency 
and an opposition which was itself divided. Weed, in 1828, 
had managed something like a coalition, but the Clay men, 
or the National Republicans, as they began to call them- 
selves,' had been hesitant, and the Democrats (officially per- 
sisting in the name Republicans) had won a sweeping vic- 
tory. In 1830, Weed and Granger sought again to cast the 
blessed mantle of Anti-Masonry over all the discontented, 
after patching it with an assortment of new " principles ". 
Internal improvement and the protective tariff were extolled 
to keep the Adams interest ; " flattering advances were made 
to Workingmen ; New York city bankers might be won by 
promising to exempt their institutions from the Safety Fund 
law which had lately been put through by Van Buren ; ^ a 
sturdy championship of the Chenango Canal proposal was 
counted on to hold the voters centering in the towns of Nor- 
wich, Oxford, Greene and Binghamton.* Thurlow Weed 
was brought to Albany at a salary of seven hundred and 
fifty dollars a year to edit an Anti-Masonic paper : and the 
Albany Evening Journal, on March 22, 1830, made its bow 
as thirty-third among the organs of that party in the state." 

rate, Nov. 7, 1829; citations in J. B. McMaster, Rights of Man in 
America, pp. 102-103, and "A Century of Social Betterment," Atlantic 
Monthly, vol. Ixxix, p. 72; and Commons, etc.. vol. i, p. 271. 

' Seward, in his Autobiography, p. 64. applies the name as early as 
1826, but this is doubtless due to a confusion in reminiscence, as the 
first use is found in the papers of 1829; see E. E. Hale. Jr.. Seward. 
p. 62. 

'Proceedings of the Anti-Masonic Convention in the State of New 
York, August II, 1830 (pamphlet, Columbia University Library). 

^ R. E. Chaddock, " The Safety- Fund Banking System in New York 
State, 1829- 1866," Sen. Doc. 61 st. Cong., 2nd Sess., vol. 34, P- 267. 

*C. McCarthy, "The Antimasonic Party," pp. 396-400. 

*T. Weed, Autobiography, p. 434; Frederick Hudson, Journalism in 
the United States (N. Y., 1873), P- 398. There were at that time 211 
papers altogether in the state. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 361 

But their hopes were vain, for the Masons in the eastern 
counties, though they read the Daily Advertiser and might 
have followed Adams, cast their votes for Throop, the 
Democratic candidate for governor. Francis Granger was 
defeated by eight thousand in a quarter of a million. "Old 
Van Rensselaer's name," wrote Weed to Granger, " acted 
as it was designed upon the Fraternity." ^ 

Early in the following year the National Republicans took 
on a bold front, and gathered delegates at Albany, where 
they listened to a speech by their new convert, P. R. Living- 
ston. The Patroon, Judge Spencer, and over thirty others 
were appointed to attend the national convention called to 
name Clay for the presidency, and some spirited resolutions 
were published by the secretaries, Oran Follett and Joseph 
Hoxie." The later correspondence of these secretaries 
shows the trend of party sentiment. They desired first to 
found a new state journal in Qay's interest, but they could 
not find the funds." Next they gravely talked of nomina- 
ting as a candidate for governor, General Root, who had 
recently declared against the Regency, hoping thus to pose 
as independents with no more connection with the Anti- 
Masons than with Democrats, but due to certain indiscre- 
tions of the General, they could not get the press to advo- 
cate this policy.* But if the National Republicans could not 
organize their forces, the canny Weed was willing to at- 
tempt it. In the spring of 1832 he was writing hopefully 
to Follett that "Adl men opposed to Jackson and the Re- 

' Nov. 13, 1830, Granger Mss. 

' J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, pp. 336-^37. 

' Oran Follett to Joseph Hoxie. Feb. 6. 1832, Follett Correspondence, 
Quarterly Publication of the Historical and Philosophical Society of 
Ohio, vol. V, no. 2, pp. 53-54- 

* Same to same. Feb. 13, 1832, ibid., p. 56- 



362 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

gency seem determined to act together,"' ' and soon Hoxie 
wrote him of a conference at Albany where an arrangement 
had been made : 

They did so meet, and the following plan was discussed and 
agreed upon, viz., that we lie still until the Anti [-Masonic] 
Convention shall have been held, at which an electoral ticket 
shall be nominated composed of ^ of Antis and ^2 of Clay 
men, & probably Granger & Strong for Gov. & Lieut. Gov., the 
electoral ticket pledged to go against Jackson, and with the un- 
derstanding that if the vote of New York will make Mr. Clay 
president, he is to have them all, if not the Antis may as well 
vote for Wirt [their presidential candidate] or not, as it will 
only send the choice to the House. This arrangement is satis- 
factory to our friends here [in New York city] generally, and 
I believe in the River counties. With a view to prepare the 
public mind for this you will have doubtless seen and observed 
the tone of our papers of late touching the " union of honest 
men," &c. The Daily Advertiser and the E[ve7iing] Journal 
at Albany are no longer at logger-heads.- 

This " Siamese-twin scheme " was none too attractive to 
the Buffalo editor, Oran Follett, who had only lately writ- 
ten in disgust of "Anti-Masons (Bah!),"^ but leadership 
must rest with talent and the Anti-Masons could not be out- 
pointed. The National Republicans had little to lose, at any 
rate; Hoxie said, "A wag observed to me a few days since 
he thought we were looking up, being flat on our backs we 
could look no other way." * 

^ He flattered Follett by referring to his paper, the Buffalo Daily 
Journal, as " the most leading and influential national paper out of the 
city of New York," May 10, 1832, Follett Correspondence. 

'J. Hoxie to Follett, May it. 1832. Granger and Stevens were again 
named for governor and Heutenant-governor. 

' Follett to A. C. Flagg, in 1830, Flagg Mss. 

* To Follett, May n, 1832, "When Masons of our standing, can be 
induced from considerations of duty, to make the sacrifices we have, 
and are making, our opponents must give us credit for devotion," 
Follett to H. D. Chipman, Aug. 6. 1832. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 363 

The plan was carried through and the National Repub- 
licans officially endorsed the ticket of the Utica convention, 
though careful to set forth " that though they adopted Anti- 
Masonic nominations, they were not anti-masons." County 
meetings and committees of correspondence sought to stir 
enthusiasm where they could.' But the arrangement 
whereby the electors might cast their votes for Clay or pos- 
sibly a part of them for William Wirt, was mocked at by 
the Regency, and did not please extremists in the two wings 
of the opposition. Thoroughgoing " Morgan men " asked 
inconvenient questions; Chancellor Kent, whose name was 
first upon the electoral ticket, soon was interrogated by en- 
thusiasts like D. C. Miller, the Batavian printer, from whose 
press " The Book " had issued in 1826, but he vouchsafed 
no answer. The New York Central Committee enjoined a 
cautious silence upon all the candidates associated with the 
chancellor, for kind words to Anti-Masons as to Wirt might 
be offensive to the Masons of the older faction. They ad- 
monished everyone that the time was not thought suitable 
to declarations or confessions, and wrote that " this Com- 
mittee thinks it prudent that the communications with the 
electors should be oral and not by correspondence." " Al- 
ready, then, among those who were soon to take the name 
of Whig, there was prescribed a smiling reticence as to the 
future. 

But the Democratic party in the state was then better 
disciplined than ever before or since. Sagacious politicians 
had been sent into Chenango and Broome Counties to prom- 
ise a canal, thus depriving Granger of an issue, and Senator 

'H. Ketchum to State Corresponding Committee in Buffalo, Follett 
Correspondence, pp. 66-67. 

' National Republican State Central Corresponding Committee to the 
State Corresponding Committee in Buffalo, Sept. 14. 183^- FoHett 
Correspondence. 



o54 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Marcy. who had been named at Herkimer for governor, as 
well as Jackson and Van Buren, were voted into office by a 
large majority.^ 

The paramount issue of the campaign, and a fatal one to 
Anti-Jackson men, had been the question of rechartering 
the Bank of the United States. Besides the general prej- 
udice against monopolies, by no means limited to Working- 
men, and the reliable antipathy of poor men toward the rich, 
there was in New York a special jealousy of that great 
corporation as an institution of a rival city, Philadelphia. 
Some local bankers who sought riddance of this great com- 
petitor gave their aid to Jackson in his " war," unaware, as 
yet, that in his heart he cherished a distrust of banks in 
general.^ On the other hand, two " high-minded men " of 
much importance, Gulian C. Verplanck and Ogden Hoff- 
man, who had remained within the Jackson party, now grew 
tired of "destructionists." and joined old friends among the 
National Republicans,-'' and some business men of Tam- 
many, like Moses H. Grinnell. R. C. Wetmore and Dudley 
Selden,* realizing that a blow at credit anywhere was a dan- 
gerous beginning, likewise left the Democrats. But the op- 
position's greatest gain was in the Courier and Enquirer, 
the leading Jackson paper of the city, whose editors. Colonel 
Webb atid Major Noah, were heavily concerned in bank 

' J. D. Hammond. Political History, vol. ii, pp. 423-424. 429- 

'"I do not dislike your Bank any more than all banks. But ever 
since I read the history of the South Sea Bubble, I have been afraid 
of banks," Jackson to N. Biddle, in 1829, R. H. C. Catterall, The Second 
Bank of the United States (Chicago, 1903), P- 184. 

'L. B. Proctor, Lives of Eminent Lawyers and Statesmen of the 
State of Nezv York (N. Y., 1882), vol. i, p. 12, Verplanck was a debtor 
of the Bank; see Catterall, pp. 253, 273. 

*G. Myers, History of Tammany Hall, pp. 106, 140-141 ; and Proctor, 
op. cit., vol. i, p. 10. Selden had borrowed $8,000 of the Bank. See 
"Apostrophe to Dudley Selden. by a Poor Man," in the Man, March 
22, 1834. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 365 

stock speculations and had largely benefited by the institu- 
tion's subsidizing loans. ^ The .\nti-Masons, for the most 
part, earnestly inveighed against the policy of the adminis- 
tration ; Seward and Maynard in the senate and John Young 
and John C. Spencer in the assembly spoke zealously and 
often in the Bank's defense, while Fillmore and others 
framed memorials for public meetings." 

But the vote in 1832 showed conclusively that whatever 
financiers or party leaders thought about a bank, the people 
would not have it. This was no surprise to Thurlow Weed. 
He believed as firmly as any of his colleagues that a Bank 
was " necessary to the commercial, manufacturing, mechan- 
ical, and agricultural interests of the country, and as a means 
of regulating its currency and exchanges," but he likewise 
realized how hopeless it would be as a campaign measure, 
and what opportunity its discussion would give the Regency 
for fanning up the hatred of the poor against the "moneyed 
aristocracy." When Chief Justice Spencer urged that Web- 
ster's arguments be published in the Journal, Weed ad- 
mitted them unanswerable in the light of justice or of 
reason, but declared that the two sentences in Jackson's veto 
message that touched on European stockholders and the 
wickedness of special privilege, would win ten votes to one 
secured by all the eloquence and logic of the God-like 
Daniel.^ In general, he prevailed upon the Anti-Masons to 
put as little emphasis as possible upon this issue in the cam- 
paigns of the middle 'thirties.* 

^Catterall, op. cit., pp. 180-181, 258-263, 339, 345. 

' W. H. Seward, Works, vol. ii, p. 223, and Autobiography, p. 151; 
J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 352; Buffalo Historical 
Society Publication, vol. x, p. 86; N. Y. Evening Post, Feb. 7, 1832; 
T. Weed, Autobiography, pp. 372-373; L. L. Doty, History of Living- 
ston County (Genesee, 1876), pp. 553-554- 

^Autobiography, pp. 37^-373- 

* Horace Greeley, Recollections of a Busy Life fN. Y., 1873^. P- 314- 



366 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Thurlow Weed devised few laws and seldom meddled in 
the large concerns of public policy. Leaving principles to 
Seward and others he could trust, he specialized in finding 
votes for what they recommended, advising only as an ex- 
pert on the likelihood of popularity of any given measure. 
In his domain he was as clos€ a student, as unselfish and as 
patriotic a man as they were in theirs. As a young boy, like 
Huckleberry Finn, he had shared the woes of an itinerant 
father who could never overtake prosperity ; and, struggling 
slowly up from cabin-boy and printer's devil, he had learned 
the hopes and fears of the great mass of men better than 
the scholarly Seward or the courtly Francis Granger. He 
did. it is true, lend countenance to bribery at the polls, but 
this was a folk-way with the English-speaking peoples more 
accepted in his day than ours: when he had become the 
powerful Warwick of the state, he refused illicit profits for 
himself and had the confidence of honest men. His keen 
concern for popular opinion as to the policies of govern- 
ment, though the leader of a party not distinguished for 
democracy, shows how far had been the progress since the 
days of Jay and Hamilton and Colonel Varick and Judge 
Benson, when the mob were not consulted, and insolence 
went unrebuked. 

By 1833 Weed had come to realize that if ever the Re- 
gency could be put down it would have to follow from the 
closest unity among its divers foes. Masonry had lost so 
many lodges that it now seemed a harmless thing indeed, 
and a party to combat it had become quite useless.^ while 
the name and the weird Hugo of the blessed spirit, which 

" The poor were almost all against us before, and this course [of 
championing the Bank] will make them unanimously so," Weed to 
Francis Granger, Nov. 23, 1834, Granger Mss. 

> The statute of limitations made it futile to continue seeking for 
convictions in the Morgan case. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 367 

Still now and then appeared in its pronouncements, was 
offensive to many National Republicans. In consequence, 
" the Evening Journal went diligently and zealously to 
work organizing the elements of opposition throughout the 
State into what soon became the ' Whig party.' '' ^ This 
name, thought to be so apt for those who criticized " King 
Andrew," and so bound up with the triumph of the Revo- 
lution as to be almost synonymous with " patriot," was 
first suggested for the united opposition by Colonel Webb, 
in his paper, the Courier and Enquirer. It was strongly 
recommended, at a party gathering, by Philip Hone, the 
former mayor and the leader of polite society in the city of 
New York, gained acceptance by April, 1834, and was used 
in the municipal elections of that month. ^ The name had 
never disappeared from party controversy, and had been 
employed by Federalists and Jeffersonians, though chiefly 
by the latter. It had been affixed to newspapers and clubs 
and party tickets; ^ and formally assumed by '* Nationals " 

' T. Weed, Autobiography, p. 425. 

*T. W. Barnes, Memoir of Weed, p. 48; B. J. Lossing, The Empire 
State (Hartford, 1888), pp. 477-478; A. Johnston in Lalor's Cyclopedia 
of Political Science (Chicago, 1882), vol. i, p. 1103. The honor of 
christening the party was also claimed by Philip Hone; see his Diary, 
vol. ii, pp. 34, 42 ; F. \V. Seward, Life of Seward, p. 446. Lossing errs 
in the date. Nathan Sargent, in his Public Men and Events (Phila- 
delphia, 1875), vol. i, p. 262, claims credit for suggesting the name, and 
probably had much to do with its acceptance in Pennsylvania; but com- 
pare C. McCarthy, *• The Antimasonic Party," p. 459. 

'I. Thomas, History of Printing in America (Worcester. iSio), 
vol. ii, pp. 517-524. A pamphlet, Report of the Corresponding Com- 
mittee of the Neiv York Whig Club on the Communication of the 
" United Whig Club" Referred to them; Together with the Resolution 
of the New York Whig Club thereon (N. Y., 1809), discusses a broad- 
side of the United Whig Club, N. Y., March 28, 1809 (in N. Y. Pub. 
Lib.), which was issued by the old Burr faction. T. F. DeVoe, The 
Market Book (N. Y., 1862), vol. i, p. 299, mentions the use of the name 
by Anti-Federalists in 1793, and Jonathan Cooley, in a pamphlet, A 



368 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



and Anti-Masons, it seemed at last to exempt them from 
the state reproach of Federalism. 

The charter elections in New York city attracted much 
attention, as for the first time the voters could express their 
choice directly as to mayor. Cornelius W. Lawrence, a 
merchant, had been named as a candidate by Tammany, 
though in standing for the policies of General Jackson 
he was considered recreant to the interests of his own 
class, while Gulian C. Verplanck, who had left the Demo- 
cratic party after their attack upon the bank, had been 
selected by the Whigs. On the three days of election the 
merchants were tireless in their exertions; many closed 
their stores at noon in order to give more time to " the great 
business of reform at the polls." though some threatened 
with dismissal those of their clerks or workmen who openly 
campaigned for Lawrence.^ In the late afternoons they 
gathered in the Exchange to listen to reports, and vied in 
their huzzas with those of Jackson men who congregated in 
the streets. The Whigs secured the common council, and 
out of some thirty-five thousand votes they lost to Law- 
rence by about two hundred only. Such a demonstration 
of their power was considered as an earnest of greater for- 
tune in the future, and thousands came together for a fete 
at Castle Garden, where three pipes of wine and forty 
barrels of beer were drunk in celebration."^ One hundred 

View of Governor Jay's Administration (Goshen, 1801), p. 11, by the 
Republicans. The latter party in the campaign of 1810 sometimes used 
the designation "Independent Whigs" (see N. Y. Journal, April 24, 
28, 1810), and, when in 1813 Federalists were suspected of British 
sympathies, the name was popular again; see Address in Albany Argus, 
April 9, 1813, and Richard Riker to P. R. Livingston, April 11, 1818, in 
Emmett AIss., N. Y. Public Library. An example of Federalist usage 
is found ill a pamphlet, A)i A ['peal to tlve Old Whigs of Massachusetts 
(Boston, 1806). o 

' The Man, March 29, April 1, 1831. ' 

^Philip Hone. Diary, vol. i, pp. 97-98, loo-ioi, 104. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 369 

guns were fired in Albany at the news; Buffalo made a gay 
affair with salvos from the battery and illuminations; 
Orange County Whigs gathered in great numbers in the 
town of Goshen ; there was a general festival of hope among 
their fellow partisans throughout the state, as well as else- 
where.' It was, they said, the Lexington of a new war 
against aggression.^ 

The new mayor's wealthy friends expressed their sym- 
pathy rather than congratulation on his coming to the office 
by the suffrages of the ignorant and unwashed rabble, and 
when somewhat later, on following the ancient custom of 
receiving New Year calls, he was forced to lock his doors 
against a friendly mob who sought to " use his house as a 
Five-Point Tavern," gentlemen shook their heads in sor- 
row.^ They grieved because democracy had brought in not 
only vulgar manners, but unbounded ignorance as well, 
and. as in the bank affair, a reckless enmity to property and 
business. Where is the power, mournfully inquired Philip 
Hone, " which can bid the delicate machinery of individual 
credit and public confidence to resume its harmonious func- 
tions when once deranged and put out of tune by the hands 
of ignorance and misdirected power?" ® 

The Whig h(jpes that were centered on the fall elections 
proved delusive. The Democrats were not insensible that 
new *' huzza strength " had been developed by the opposi- 
tion in all its fulminations on the tyranny of General Jack- 
son and the sycophantic flattery that he received from his 
supporters in New York state. The rejuvenated party, they 
realized, was held together by a common economic theory 
agreeable alike to the business men, the manufacturers, the 

' Hone, op. cit., vol. i. p. 103. 

^ D. S. Alexander, Political History, vol. i, p. 401. 

* Philip Hone, Diary, vol. i, p. 241. 



,-.0 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

staple farmers and the millers of the western counties, all 
of whom desired a government faithful in protecting credit 
and energetic in developing the natural resources. 

Yet the politicians of the Regency apprehended quite as 
clearly that dissension might be sown between the Anti- 
Masons of the west, whose late crusade had had its demo- 
cratic elements, and the Federalists of the eastern cities, 
cool conservatives with antique prejudice against those 
really powerful persons, the Toms, the Dicks and the 
Harrys. They realized that a broadside of invective against 
the Whigs would drive the parts to closer union in a com- 
mon feeling of resentment; so they struck their sharpest 
blows against their eastern enemies and poured their pity 
on true Anti-Masons, the honest stalwarts, who had been 
cheated by the faithless Weed and Granger, when in 1832 
the Siamese-twin electoral ticket would have sacrificed their 
strength to Clay had victory allowed. Let none of those 
deluded enthusiasts who had once been Republicans pre- 
sume that their Federalist leaders cared a straw about the 
blessed spirit. 

If [they said] the democratic Anti-Masons will take the trouble 
to make a list of the state senators and representatives in Con- 
gress, and to the State Legislature, who have been elected by 
their votes, we venture to predict that they will be astounded 
by the very inconsiderable number of their own class, who 
have in these respects found favor in the eyes of their own 
party. It is in perfect keeping with the aristocratic feelings of 
their federal allies, to confine the democratic Anti-masons to 
the enjoyment of town offices, whilst they themselves are per- 
mitted to fill the high places within the reach of the Anti- 
masonic votes. ^ 

' Address to the Republican Voters of the State of New York, drawn 
up at the state convention in 1834, by John A. Dix and others, in 
Albany Argus, Extra, Sept. 14, 1834. 




WILLIAM H. SEWARD 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 371 

This adroit cajolery doubtless was of some effect, but it 
is not to this that the Democratic victory must be attrib- 
uted. The argument with Andrew Jackson had rubbed 
and frayed the patience of Nicholas Biddle, president of 
the Bank of the United States, till by the end of 1833, in a 
rash temper, he determined to let the people suffer with the 
bank, by withholding loans, especially in New York, whose 
Congressmen had cast their votes against him. The bank's 
own friends could not defend this new manoeuvre, and its 
enemies could ill conceal their glee at the general sense of 
wrong. Governor Marcy got the legislature to appropriate 
six millions, as a special credit for state banks, the very 
promise of which so stabilized the markets that the Whigs 
could rail at this measure, which they dubbed the " Mon- 
ster Mortgage Bill," with only half a heart. ^ 

As the public feeling grew during the summer of 1834, 
the prospect of the Whigs grew darker. They nominated 
the young senator William H. Seward, to the profound 
astonishment of Auburn, his home town, and the derision 
of the Regency. Avho poked fun at the youthful John Doe, 
candidate for governor." The contest went again for 
Marcy, who had been renominated, and seven senators of 
eight elected were Democrats. Thurlow Weed, who on the 
declination of Gulian C. Verplanck. had suggested Seward, 
was so disheartened that he made some plans to move to 
Michigan.^ He stayed but to encounter fresh perplexities. 

It will be remembered that for several years after 1806, 
Rufus King and other Federalist leaders had foimd impla- 

' W. H. Seward. Autobiography, pp. 153, 154. It was not necessary 
to draw on this fund, J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 441. 

^Address in Albany Argus, Extra, Sept. 14, 1834; see also F. Ban- 
croft, Life of William H. Seward (N. Y., 1900), vol. i, p. 54, and E. E. 
Hale, Jr., Seward, pp. 110-112. 

' E. E. Hale, Jr., Seward, pp. no, 113. 



372 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

cable opponents in the Irishmen/ These immigrants had 
come in greater numbers in the hard times after Waterloo, 
bringing wives and children oftener than was the case with 
nther racial groups," and in the early 'twenties there came 
more, many of them seeking work upon the Grand Canal, 
along which they ultimately settled. By 1829 there were 
thirteen Catholic churches in the state, of which five were 
in New York and Brooklyn and seven in the towns along 
that waterway." During the next decade the number of 
their parishioners more than doubled.* Thrift and sobriety 
are not the outstanding virtues of the Irishman, and he was 
soon accused of adding far more than his quota to the bur- 
den of crime and pauperism that New York city, in partic- 
ular, had to bear."* It was there complained that the cost of 
its almshouses, bridewell and penitentiary was more than 
half caused by the fcjreign element.® But this condition was 
not confined to the metropolis: in Wayne and Niagara 
counties there were protests, and in Rochester the overseer 
declared that seven-eighths of those who sought relief had 
come from Europe.' 

' See supra, chapter iii. 

'* W. J. Bromwell, History of I mmigration to the United States, pp. 
13, 14; Edward Young, "Special Report on Statistics of Immigration." 
with Ninth Census. This was despite Great Britain's attempts to limit 
emigration by law. 

* J. G. Shea, History of the Catholic Church in America, vol. ii, pp. 
181, 204, 205. These of course were placed among three million Pro- 
testants, ibid., p. 495. 

* Commons, etc.. vol. i. p. 413. 

•"' L. D. Scisco, Political Xatiiis>ii in Xei^' )'ork Stale, p. 20. 

•The state enacted that any ship-master who knowingly brought in 
a convict immigrant should be fined or imprisoned, .V. Y. Laws of 1830, 
Chapter 230, and N. Y. Assembly Documents, 1830, No. 260, quoted by 
Scisco. Many citizens now wished to apply this provision likewise to 
paupers. 

'J. B. McMaster, History of the People of the United States (N. Y., 
1883—), vol. vi, p. 427. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 373 

In rejection of the contest which had recently been waged 
in England over giving Catholics seats in Parliament, 
clerg)'men and others in 1830 were beginning to inveigh 
against the menace of the Pope. Here was an alien church, 
they said, with alien lo}'alties, supported by a clannish people 
who refused to adopt American ways, except to insist that 
in a land of liberty they had a right to do as they might 
please. Newspapers began to warn their readers of the 
danger in extending citizenship and the right of holding 
office to such a separate people.^ Considering the disparity 
in their objects of allegiance, and the gross and patent in- 
equalities in standards of necessities and comforts,* which 
gave such gloomy prospect of continuance, here seemed to 
be the beginning of separate social castes, which yet, with 
universal suffrage, enjoyed political equality. Antagonisms 
such as these awaited only organization to make themselves 
the motives of effective force in politics. 

In 1834, S. F. B. Morse, the artist, who had recently re- 
turned from Europe, announced that in Vienna he had dis- 
covered a propaganda for forwarding the Roman Church 
in the United States, and published letters calling on all 
patriotic men to stand against the growing power of the 
hierarchy in our political affairs.^ Riots and violent en- 

' See quotation in McAlaster, vol. vi, p. 85. 

* Even among the Catholics, it was said, there were some " who did 
not wish to be annoyed by the presence of an Irish mob," among which 
their servants were to be found, and who built a little church for their 
own use. Aristocracy in America, From the Sketch-Book of a German 
Nobleman, edited by F. J. Grund (London. 1839), vol. i, p. 208. 

* Morse had long shared with his friend Lafayette the dread of the 
Catholic Church as a political influence ; see E. L. Morse, Samuel F. B. 
Morse, Letters and Journals (N. Y.. 1914), vol. ii, pp. 35-37, 330. His 
articles were first published in the A'. Y. Observer during January and 
February, 1834, and the following year were printed in a small volume 
entitled Foreign Conspiracy. This work passed through seven editions. 
Morse regarded the St. Leopold foundation, referred to in the text, 
as a semi-political instrumentality of the Holy Alliance. 



374 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

counters " between the Irish and the Americans " in that 
}^ear gave a fiercer aspect to the controversy/ and there 
soon was formed a Protestant association, which naturally 
stirred up more rioting, till on one occasion it was necessary 
to call out a regiment and troop of horse to put it down.^ 
During March, 1835, in some wards caucuses of nativists 
were held to draw up tickets wholly on this issue, while at a 
public meeting they considered " means to counteract the 
undue influence foreigners now possess over our elections," 
and eulogized the Revolutionary fathers. By October they 
had perfected a city organization supposed to be non- 
partisan as to the general issues of the state and nation/' 

Nevertheless the movement was regarded as a hostile 
one by Democrats, who since 1827, when universal suffrage 
was at last in force, had assiduously cultivated immigrants, 
establishing a " naturalization bureau " where aid and coun 
sel had freely been dispensed. In Tammany Hall special 
meetings were arranged for Irish, French and Germans, 
and the sachems put some influential Irishmen upon their 
local tickets, remembering others in the disposition of the 
humbler posts in departmental offices and in labor contracts 
for the city.* In the middle 'thirties, one-third of the 
eighteen thousand who made up their voting strength were 
said to be of foreign birth.' In 1841 it was charged against 
Van Buren, by one who thought he was possessed of special 
information, that the President had S3^stematically intrigued 
to draw^ support from Catholic priests.** 

* Philip Hone. Diary, vol. i. p. 100. 

' fbid., and L. D. Scisco. 0/'. cit.. p. 22. 

* Scisco, loc. cit. 

*See account of meeting of Adopted Citizens, Dennis McCarthy, 
chairman, in the Man, March 31, April i, 5, 1834. 
•■^G. Myers. History of Tammany Hall, pp. 87, 119, 13^140, i5i-'54- ■ 

* James A. Hamilton. Reminiscences, p. 314- 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 375 

On the other hand, most Whigs were of a station in 
s(x:iety where contrary opinions and practices were certain 
to prevail. :\ contemporary book preserves a conversation 
which may well illustrate with what surprise in such ex- 
clusive circles any sympathy with poor foreigners was gen- 
erally received : 

"Why, what singular notions you have. Mr. !" ex- 
claimed the lady ; " I hope you are not an advocate of the 
rabble?" 

" Certainly not ; I represent the people of my township."' 

" You do not understand me. When I speak of ' the rabble.* 
I mean those who have no interest in our institutions, — foreign 
paupers and adventurers, and particularly the Irish. I have no 
objection to liberty in the abstract. I think all men, with the 
exception of our negroes, ought to be free; but I cannot bear 
the ridiculous notions of equality which seem to take hold of 
our people. . . ." 

" I have always been a democrat." 

" Oh ! You are a dem-o-crat, are you ?" ^ 

It was to be expected that Whigs would offer their en- 
couragement to those whom they could well consider as 
allies.- In some districts they deferred entirely to the nativ- 
ists. while in others they engrafted anti-foreign resolutions 

' F. J. Grund, Aristocracy in America, vol. i, pp. 250-251. 

'^ " In the meantime the Native American Association made up of 
different parties, and having no other bond of union than the total 
exclusion of foreigners from office, have had a meeting and nomin- 
ated an Assembly ticket, of whom I do not know an individual; bitt I 
like the ostensible object of this association, and am of an opinion that 
times may come and cases occur in which this influence may be favor- 
ably exercised," Philip Hone, Diary, vol. i, p. 169. Hone doubtless re- 
flected the sentiment of his class when he complained that " These Irish- 
men, strangers among us, without a feeling of patriotism, or affection 
in common with American citizens, decide the elections in the city of 
New York" ibid., p. 184. 



376 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Upon their own/ A fusion was effected with success on 
the nominations for the common council in 1836, and the 
patronage pertaining to that body was appropriately dis- 
tributed. At the general elections in November, the nativ- 
ists presented a congressional ticket including good Whig 
names, which the older party in a caucus formally endorsed 
in lieu of separate nominations, and in 1837, by complete 
co-operation, they succeeded in depriving Tammany of the 
chief magistracy of New York city. In the hour of triumph 
the weaker organization was absorbed ; * indeed, it was the 
Whig encouragement which first had made it formidable. 
The latter party's gain consisted in some religious enthu- 
siasts and some workingmen who worried lest wages be 
depressed by the influx of cheap labor ; ^ but chiefly they 
had benefited by a rallying cry for their own party.* 

The up-state Whigs were less stiff-necked in their con- 
servatism than their colleagues in the city. Weed's attitude 
upon the bank, we have remarked; and he and Seward, 
together with their ally. Horace Greeley, who soon came 
into preeminence, disliked the movement of proscription 
launched against poor foreigners. Governor Seward, a few 
years later, defiantly proposed a scheme which was inter- 
preted as calling for a vote of money to the Catholic schools. 

^L. D. Scisco, Political Natiristn. pp. 27-28. They refused support to 
Morse as Native American candidate for mayor, because he was a 
Van Buren Democrat. 

* Ibid., pp. 29-31. 

*This was not the attitude of most of the old Workingmen's Party: 
their leading organ, now the Man, was sympathetic toward the Irish, 
e. g. on March 31, June 24, 1834, June 23. 1835. The nativist movement 
abated after 1837 for a time due to the reduced immigration following 
the panic; see Commons, etc.. vol. i, p. 413. 

*"The political leaders of the Native American party are opposed to 
naturalized citizens solely on the ground that these citizens do not uni- 
formly vote on their side," O. A. Brownson, Essays and Reviews (N. Y., 
1852). p. 426. His comment was written in 1844. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 377 

His supporters in the great metropolis were incensed, drew 
up statements in their meetings and wrote him stinging 
letters; ' when the bill was signed, though pruned of most 
of its offensive features, they threw party discipline aside 
and were nativists again. This was irritating to Seward, 
Weed and Greeley, who had hope of some support from 
Irishmen who lived along the Grand Canal, though even in 
those towns they met with disappointment." 

The internal improvement policy, Seward declared, re- 
quired unskilled labor quite as much as capital, and nothing 
should be said or done to check its flow from Europe.^ 
Doubtless his concern, as well as that of Weed and Greeley, 
that foreigners should be received on equal footing with 
old settlers, sprang from an honorable and sympathetic 
spirit, and when a Whig legislature passed the Registration 
Bill, which made it difficult for such new voters in the city 
of New York, he signed it with unfeigned reluctance," and 

' F. W. Seward, Life of Seward, vol. i. pp. 471-472; H. Greeley. 
Recollections of a Busy Life, p. 129. 

* Julius Winden, "The Influence of the Erie Canal,"' quoted at length 
by A. B. Hulbert, Historic Highways, vol. xiv, pp. 176-177; see also 
A. B. Johnson, Thoughts on the Necessity for, and Actions of. The 
Approaching State Convention (Utica, 1846), pp. 25-31. 

* Messages from the Governors, vol. iii. pp. 727-728. 

* " This right hand drops off before I do one act with the Whig or 
any other party in opposition to any portion of my fellow-citizens, on 
the ground of the difference of their nativity or their religion," Seward, 
Works, vol. iii, p. 388; H. Greeley, Recollections, p. 312. Greeley 
favored the bill. In 1834, the Whig common council in New York 
city considered a proposal to put a similar measure into force, but it 
was objected that it was contrary to the constitution of the state for 
them to do so; see the Man. April 12. 15. 17, 1834. 'Seward and Weed 
were both active in " Repeal meetings," i. e. to express sympathy with 
Daniel O'Connell's fight in ParHament for the repeal of the Act of 
Union, and the establishment of home rule for Ireland ; see F. W. 
Seward, Seward, vol. i, pp. 697-698, and T. W. Barnes. Memoir of Weed, 
pp. 114-115- 



378 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

was glad indeed to see it soon repealed by Democrats/ 
When the Whigs were beaten in 1844, followers of these 
leaders charged it to the folly of the nativists, while their 
critics in the party claimed that they had themselves brought 
on humiliation by their fatal friendship for the foreigners 
and abolitionists.^ 

The last-named preference was imputed to the leaders in 
the rural counties, but very seldom to the wealthy mer- 
chants of New York, who thrived on trade connections 
with the south.'' While the great Whig papers of the city 
were accused of stirring up anti-negro riots.* their inland 
partisans were lecturing on the crime of slavery. Many 
abolitionists in the New England regions of the state sup- 
ported Sewa'rd in 1838.-'' A letter of inquiry was addressed 
to both the candidates, and though Seward's reply was not 
considered satisfactory, it w^as less objectionable to his ques- 
tioners than Marcy's. and his anti-slavery friends were vin- 
dicated in their faith by his firm stand with Virginia after 
his election. Luther Bradish, of Malone, whom the Whigs 
had nominated for lieutenant governor, came out strongly 

'F. Bancroft, Life of Seward, vol. i, p. 117. 

*F. W. Seward. Seward, vol. i, p. 734; H. Greeley, The American 
Conflict (N. Y., 1864-1866), vol. i, p. 168. "I assure you we have no 
strength to spare, especially since Charles King and other antediluvians 
of our party will not permit the Irish or the Dutch [Germans?] to 
vote the Whig ticket. Apropos, I am exceedingly indignant at this 
Native American movement, and the folly of our people in giving aid 
and countenance to disorganizers," Washington Hunt to Weed, quoted 
in Memoir of Weed, p. 121. 

'■'■ Philip Hone, Diary, vol. i, pp. 7c). lofj, 150. 157. 167, 174-175. etc. 

* N. Y. Courier and Enquirer, quoted in the Man, June 9. July 12. 
1834; see A'^. Y. Journal of Commerce's comment on N. Y. Commercial 
Advertiser, June 20, 1834, and the Man, July 17, 1834. 

*H. Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Potver in America (Boston, 
1872). vol. i, pp. 408, et seq. 



TOM, DICK AND HARRY TAKE A HAND 379 

as an abolitionist.* A number of their Congressmen from 
western districts in the later 'thirties, like Abner Hazeltine 
of Jamestown,' S. M. Gates of Warsaw%" Philo C. Fuller 
of Geneseo,* and Mark C. Sibley of Canandaigua,*"' were 
well known as leaders of the movement, while even the 
VVebsterian Millard Fillmore then advocated freedom for 
the slaves within the District of Columbia and abolition of 
the trade between the states.'' The Whigs were taunted in 
the West as being made up of '* combined factions of Fed- 
eralism, Abolitionism, and Conservatism," ^ but it was rec- 
ognized that the country leaders were hardly as conserva- 
tive as the " antediluvian " Federalists in New York city. 

But the new wine of democracy had made sad havoc with 
the legal bottles of the eighteenth century; some witnessed 
the result with the sincerest consternation, while others 
welcomed it almost in ecstacy. Workingmen whose fathers 
had had no political existence, had come to have an equal 
share in sovereignty along with those who cherished many- 
quartered coats-of-arms ; strong in numbers and in resolu- 
tion, they had demanded that their fetters be struck off. 
and had seen with what alacrity their will was executed. 
Irishmen who had brought little with them to this country 

* F. Bancroft, Life of Seward, vol. i, pp. T^-?^- 

"^Centennial History of Chautauqua County (Jamestown, 1904). vol 
i, p. 612. 

* Bench and Bar of New York (N. Y., 1897), vol. i, p. 334- 
*L. L. Doty, History of Livingston County, vol. i, p. 539. 

' Ontario Messenger, Nov. 20, 1839. 

*E. B. Morgan, Mr. Fillmore's Political History and Position (pamph- 
let, Buffalo, 1856). 

^ Ontario Messenger, Nov. 13, 1839. They vi^ere charged with bar- 
gaining for abolitionist support, though they denied it; see Ontario 
Repository, May 6, 1840. The Whigs even in the 'thirties suffered losses 
to the independent tickets; see letter from Francis Granger, undated, 
pp. 26-27, Granger Mss. 



380 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

besides a high regard for freedom and equality had jauntily 
refused to pay the slightest homage to the " natural leaders 
of society," and had permanently cast their lot with those 
who formally professed a different set of principles. But 
this spirit of democracy had penetrated quite beyond the 
party with which it was associated, and. on the other hand, 
as we have seen, it had already forced out of that party cer- 
tain elements that would not be imbued. Other? were to 
follow. 



CHAPTER XIII 
Two Views of Vested Rights 

The Military and Civic Hotel, formerly located on the S. VV. 
corner of Bowery and Broome Street, was a frame building 
of the olden time, not quite two stories high, and it appeared 
to have a friendly leaning towards the adjoining house, prob- 
ably of long standing. Before entering the door, it was neces- 
sary to descend two or three steps below the pavement of the 
street to bring you on a level with the threshold. When you 
entered the door you would see that the Hotel was one of the 
most unostentatious of hotels in the world, for there was not 
the least appearance of aristocracy in the equipments of the 
bar, the unassuming landlord, or the guests to whom his ser- 
vices were devoted. Passing round the bar, you would find 
yourself at the foot of humble-looking stairs, lighted of eve- 
nings by a very humble-looking dark japanned lamp. ... If 
you were desirous of seeing the temple of Loco-Focoism, and 
would go up the stairs, you would by ascending some six or 
eight steps, find yourself at the door of the sacred room. On 
crossing its threshold, you would find yourself under a low 
ceiling, and surrounded by walls of a smoky antique appear- 
ance. Two or four candles were wont to be stuck up around 
the room in tins attached to the walls, and, in the early days of 
the Loco-Foco party, two candles graced the table, until they 
were superseded by an embrowned lamp suspended from the 
ceiling, which sent up its columns of rich smoke, as if to indi- 
cate the aspiring fortunes of the Loco-Focos. There was a 
platform large enough for a small table and three or four 
chairs to stand on, and this humble enthronement was the only 
aristocratic or monarchic furnishment of the sanctorum. Yet 
it was here that true democracy was preached. . . . 

.381 



382 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



So writes the Recording Secretary, F. Byrdsall, in his 
Origin and History of the Loco-Foco Party, a tiny black- 
bound volume issued to the world in 1842/ 

Those who now and then foregathered in this little "great 
room " were Democrats, distinguished for strict orthodoxy. 
They were enthusiastic partisans of Jackson in his assault 
upon the Bank of the United States, but felt that this was 
but a good beginning of a great crusade against all monop- 
olies and chartered business institutions. They believed 
that their own party in its long control at Albany had for- 
gotten its true principles, and that politicians in chartering 
scores of banks had sold the liberties of the people for 
shares of stock. The scandal of the Seventh Ward Bank, 
when thousands of such shares had been distributed, to each 
Tammany senator among the rest, was but a bit more glar- 
ing than the many others." " The cormorants could never 
be gorged," as Judge Hammond wrote ;^ one had but to 
glance across the pages of the legislative journals to realize 
how far the tendency had gone.' These banks but added 
to the public burdens ; paper money, the reformers said, was 
but a sign of fraud. 

Individuals by special acts were granted their monopolies 
of receiving on deposit a quantity of hard-earned gold and 
silver, and then issuing to the public a mass of paper of 
face value greatly in excess of what it really represented in 
the vaults. And the few restrictions were disregarded ; 
witness the bank at Ithaca where an investigation had dis- 
closed hardly one dollar to redeem a hundred on a possible 

' Pages 44-45- 

'' G. Myers, History of Tammany Hall, p. 115; the Matt, Feb. 27, 1834. 

* Political History, vol. ii, p. 448. 

* Cf. index in A\ Y. Assembly Jouninl. 1834 ami 1835; see also sum- 
mary in the Man, March i, 1834. 



TWO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 383 

demand/ When bankers solemnly explained the needs of 
credit, these critics were impatient. Credit, they replied, 
should rest entirely upon the reputation of the borrower, 
which anyone might learn; let the creditor beware.^ These 
views had lately found expression in the Evening Post. In 
March, 1834, it had presented a flattering review of Gouge's 
History of Banking — a work which argued to the point 
that, '' The very act of establishing a money corporation 
destroys the natural equilibrium of society"^ — and had 
maintained that the government should take its money out 
of banks, institutions which produced more harm than 
good/ Admonitions from the other Democratic papers 
proved of no avail, and the Post, with its Utopian editors, 
was for a time disowned by the party.'' 

The Tammany Society was disturbed. The " anti- 
monopoly faction." in March, 1835, had wrested the con- 
trol of a party caucus from the bankers, Gideon Lee and 
Preserved Fish/' and might again prove formidable. The 
ticket, which the regular committee had planned to offer 
for endorsement at the county meeting in October, was not 
free from bankers, and a contest was expected. On the ap- 
pointed evening, the committee and a company of their sup- 
porters early gained an entrance by a back door to the hall, 

' Ithaca Chronicle and N. Y. Courier and Enquirer, quoted in the 
Man, Feb. 20, March 20, 1834. 

*F. Byrdsall, History of the Loco-Foco Party, pp. 148-149. 

•■' W. M. Gouge, A Short History of Paper Money and Banking in the 
United States (Philadelphia, 1833), P. 229. This book acquired in- 
fluence with the national administration, and its author is said to have 
suggested the Independent Treasury system ; see D. R. Dewey, 
Financial History of the United States (N. Y., 5th edition, 1915), p. 235. 

* See comment in the Man, March 17. 24, May 20, 1834. 

* iV. Y. Evening Post, Sept. 19, 1835. 
*G. Myers, op. cit.. pp. 115-120. 



384 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

and a bank president nominated as the chairman a well- 
known bank director. But the (opposition came in greater 
numbers, tore away the chair, placed w'ithin it a working- 
man who stood against monopolies, and claimed the meet- 
ing for themselves. The disgruntled leaders yielded to this 
force, and retired from the hall with their adherents; but 
as they left the building they gave a little vent to their 
enormous indignation by turning off the gas. The insur- 
gents in their victory were not unprepared, for, having had 
some inkling of this stratagem, they had supplied them- 
-selves with candles and some " loco-foco '' matches, then 
just coming int(j use. so that by this weird illumination 
they brought to a conclusion the business of the evening. 
Next da}^ the Courier and Enquirer dubbed the faction 
which had held the hall, the Loco-Focos, a name that never 
lost its prominence for ten years or more.' 

The victory, however, was short-lived, for the commit- 
tee, disdaining facts, gravely published that its candidates 
had been accepted, and the party discipline was such that 
ward committees dutifully followed ; " the ligatures of self- 
interest were drawn tight, and fears of extrusion from the 
party were awakened." " The protestants soon concluded 
that if their theories were to gain support by any organiza- 
tion, it would have to be their own. and consequently at a 
formal gathering at the Military and Civic Plotel, in Jan- 
uarry. 1836. they took the name of " Friends of Equal 
Rights." At the same time they drew up a Declaration 
which, after due reference to the natural rights and duties 
of mankind, set forth their " uncompromising hostility to 
bank notes and paper money as a circulating medium, be- 
cause gold and silver is the only safe constitutional cur- 
rency;" likewise it condemned monopolies and vested 

" F. Byrdsall, pp. 23-2<S; Niles Register, Nov. 7, 1835. 
' Byrdsall. p. 31. 



TWO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 385 

rights, and declared that all charters of incorporation could 
be altered or repealed/ Two months later they put up 
their candidates for mayor and the common council, and in 
the spring election they polled almost half as many votes as 
did the Whigs, though Mayor Lawrence was re-elected. 
Yet in all this they disclaimed the purpose of founding a 
new party. They were, they said, good Democrats, more 
orthodox than the Tammany leaders ; and, as it came about, 
these perfectionists were indeed the leaven which perme- 
ated the whole lump, and their very name at last was fast- 
ened on the party throughout the nation. - 

" And now, gentle reader," quaintly writes the secretary, 
" you are requested to contemplate the glorious spectacle of 
a little band of men contending against two great political 
parties for the sake of principles only." ^ It was made up 
largely of those undistinguished amateur political econo- 
mists of robust conscience and unquenchable idealism who 
make a valuable constituent of society; their drastic criti- 
cism is wholesome, and for the questionable remedies b}- 
which they would reform the body politic, hard-headed men 
are forced to find a practicable substitute. Small grocers 
and shop-keepers who had felt the pinch of wholesale prices, 
together with mechanics who read books on Sunday, were 
most numerous, though there were some disgruntled office- 
holders, and at least a half-dozen physicians were impor- 
tant in their counsels.* 

Though somewhat broader in its personnel, the Loco- 
F(x:o movement had its impulse in the agitation of the 

' Byrdsall, pp. 39-40. 

^ The independent ticket of the Loco-Focos drew off enough I>emo- 
cratic votes to be in part responsible for the Whig and Native American 
victories in 1836 and 1837. 

' Byrdsall, p. 50. 

* The Man, May 12, 1834, and Byrdsall. passim. 



386 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Workingmen five years before. The old organization had 
been broken up in 1831. as we have seen, and its members 
brought into the Tammany Society. The sachems, in re- 
turn, sent several Workingmen to Albany and one, Eli 
Moore, a trade-union president, to Congress. The hall was 
opened now and then specially for gatherings of " useful 
citizens," ^ and " workeyism " seemed absorbed. But the 
radicals had not been soothed into forgetfulness by all this 
hospitality. By 1834 they had come to meet sometimes 
outside the party temple, and there were comments in the 
press about a Military Hall Democracy, as well as that of 
Tammany." George H. Evans founded in their interest a 
penny paper called the Man, which advised them to remain 
together : " workingmen," he said. " must not only become 
politicians, but they must unite as politicians." ^ They 
pledged the local Democratic candidates for office in the 
state to oppose the chartering of monopolies and to labor 
for a law prohibiting bank bills of less than twenty dollars, 
but all but four forgot their promise.* The Workingmen 
were still loyal, and in 1834, when hickory poles were 
raised, they sang as lustily as anyone the praises of the 
President, yet their tone was sometimes ominous : 

Mechanics, Carters, Laborers, 

Must form a close connection 
And show the rich Aristocrats 
Their powers, at this election .... 

Yankee Doodle, smoke 'em out. 
The proud, the banking faction. 
None but such as Hartford Feds 
Oppose the poor and Jackson. ^ 

' £. g. the Man, April 2, 4. 1834. 

* Ibid., May 16, 19, 22, 1834. 

' Ibid., 1st number, Feb. 18. 1834. 

* Ibid., May 17. 19. 1834; G. Myers, History of Tammany Hall, 
pp. 122, 131. 

^The Man, March 25, 1834. 



TWO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 387 

They were not much concerned in 1834 when the Bank of 
the United States attacked the credit of its rivals in the 
states; it was to them only "the old alligator eating the 
little ones." ^ Governor Marcy's six-million-dollar loan 
they grudgingly endorsed with an astonishing resolution : 

Resolved, That, under the existing circumstances, the Mort- 
gage Loan was needful to the State Institutions in order to 
paralyze the intended attack meditated by the British Bank. 
We, therefore, refrain from complaint. Still we believe that 
the act so direfully needed was a gross, flagrant, unconstitu- 
tional abuse of power — an act in turpitude like that of a gam- 
bler in desperate circumstances who blows out his brains rather 
than see his ruined family.^ 

The Regency were welcome to make out of this what they 
could ! 

In the fall campaign the radicals were an element of 
much importance in the city, where Marcy's large majority 
was brought together with their help. But the Whigs con- 
soled themselves with the shrewd observation that pure 
democracy would prove unpalatable to many respectable 
Democratic leaders. 

Tlie agrarian party, who have had things pretty much their 
own way [wrote Philip Hone] will not stop at Martin Van 
Buren. . . . The battle had been fought upon these grounds 
of the poor against the rich, and this unworthy prejudice, this 
dangerous delusion, has been encouraged by the leaders of the 
triumphant party, and fanned into a flame by the polluted 
breath of the hireling press in their employ. ..." Down with 
the aristocracy !" mingled with the shouts of victory, and must 
have grated on some of their own leaders like the croakings of 
an evil-boding raven.^ 

1 The Man, March 29, 1834. 
' Ibid., May 17, 1834. 
^ Diary, vol. i, p. 119. 



388 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



Whatever is, must prove its right to be — such might have 
been the NihiHst maxim of the Loco-Focos: ^ it was, as 
Hone had said, a restless day for Democratic leaders. 
Evans, toiling in his narrow, murky office at No. i Mott 
Street, as editor, compositor and pressman, was one of the 
most influential men in New York city. Every issue of the 
Man contained a challenge. It deprecated aristocracy 
within the army, and published articles against West Point 
as a useless institution which fostered swaggering bravos.^ 
His paper was consistently and strongly anti-clerical; he 
desired to place church property upon the tax list, and 
would rid the prisons of their chaplains.' 

In this he but continued what had been begun by Miss 
Wright and R. D. Owen. The former in the later 'twenties 
had suspected that a union of church and state might be 
effected b)- the Protestant clergymen.^ The controversy as 
to carrying mails on Sunday, she considered the beginning 
of a bitter contest, and in her lectures organized Christian- 
ity was analyzed with little sympathy. The address which 
Owen had delivered On the Influence of the Clerical Pro- 
fession,* had been exceedingly offensive to the pious, and 
when he and Miss Wright elaborated all the points of athe- 
ism in their newspaper, the Free Enquirer.^ there was con- 

* Professor Edgar Dawson, in an article entitled " Beginnings in 
Political Education," presently to appear in the Historical Outlook. 
states his opinion that it was apprehension of fearful consequence of 
the ultra-Democratic movement that led authorities to introduce the 
formal study of politics into the schools in the late thirties. 

^ The Mail, Feb. 26, May 14, June 12, 18, 27, 1834. 

'^ S. A. Underwood, Heroines of Free thought (N. Y., 1876), p. 213, 
Miss Wright became Mme. D'Arusmont in 1833, but continued to be 
called Fanny Wright by the press. On her life see Memoir of Frances 
Wright (Cincinnati, 1855). 

♦In the Hall of Science. Oct., 1831 (N. Y.. 1831). 

'N. Y., 1829- 1832. 



TIVO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 389 

siderable comment on the infidel agrarians who preached 
subversion of our institutions/ Thomas Hertell, a radical, 
whom the Democrats in New York city had sent to the 
legislature,* after arduous debate finally carried through 
the assembly a bill providing that, " No person shall be 
deemed incompetent as a witness in any court, matter or 
proceeding, on account of his or her opinions on the matter 
of religion," but the senate could not be convinced.^ It 

' See especially Abner Cunningham, An Address to the Consideration 
of R. D. Owen, Kneeland, Houston, and Others of the Infidel Party 
in the City of New York (N. Y., 1833), which tells of the tragic death 
of infidels in scores of cases, chiefly by violence; see also L. J. 
Everett, Exposure of the Principles of the "Free Enquirer" (Boston, 
1831). The Workingmen in other sections of the state had formally 
repudiated these religious views as forming any part of the party 
creed (see Utica Mechanics' Press, July 17, 1830), and the atheistic 
leaders themselves had tried to keep the religious question free of 
politics (e. g. Working Man's Advocate, Jan. 16, 1830). Yet those who 
found their religious opinions according to the Age of Reason were 
mostly members of the faction. 

" J. R. Commons, etc.. History of Labour, vol. i. p. 267. 

'^ N. Y. Assembly Journal, 1835, pp. 49, 81, 747, 870; 1836, pp. 130, 137, 
149, etc., etc. It passed the assembly Jan. 31, 1837; ibid., p. 184. Scores 
of petitions were received on this matter. A specimen of Hertell's argu- 
ment as to legislation on opinion is worth quotation : " Human thoughts 
are impressions made on the mind by evidence presented through the 
medium of the senses and the intellectual faculties. Man cannot avoid 
thinking, to a greater or less extent. He cannot resolve what he will 
not think, without instantly seeing the folly and the futility of the at- 
tempt to execute it ; for then he will think the more. Human thoughts, 
therefore, are involuntary and irresistible. Man cannot govern his 
thoughts or restrain them. How can the legislature derive authority 
to do that which their constituents have not the power to do?" The 
requirement of the law which he wished to supplant was professed 
"belief in the existence of a Supreme Being and that he will punish 
false swearing." When it was charged that without religion there 
was no morality, Hertell replied that " rogues seldom professed un- 
popular creeds," and that infidelity was rare in Sing Sing; Thomas 
Hertell, Rights of Conscience Defended . . . (N. Y., 1835), pp. 7, 16, 
29, 31, 34, 51- 



390 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

was a Democratic legislature which ended the remuneration 
to the chaplains ; ^ it was in Tammany Hall that the '* in- 
tidels " held their Sunday exercises." When a petition 
from the central counties was presented to the legislature, 
to exclude clergymen from the schools, it was observed 
that the signers were nearly all of them Democrats/' Under 
all these circumstances, it was not surprising that the Whigs 
could claim to be defenders of religion from the threaten- 
ing " fannywrightism " of their enemies.* 

As long as the old Democratic leaders were willing to 
play at radicalism, the mechanics gave them their political 
allegiance, while they worked for an improvement in in- 
dustrial conditions through trade unions. When in 1835 
and 1836 the active trading market had forced prices to 
new heights, many strikes were called throughout the state, 
by tailors, caulkers, iron-workers, carpenters and others, in 
hope of readjusting wages on a fairer scale.'* But a rude 
shock came to those who placed their hopes in combinations. 
At Geneva, in Ontario County, the journeyman shoemakers 
had formed a union and demanded higher compensation. 
A suit at law was instituted to test their right to do so, and 
after an appeal it came to trial in the supreme court of the 
state. There in 1835 the union was adjudged to be a con- 
federacy wrongfully to injure others, and hence a misde- 
meanor.® " If journeyman boot-makers." asked Chief Jus- 

' N. Y. Laws, 1833, chap. 87 ; see also Moulton's Report in the New 
York Legislature Against the Employment of Chaplains (N. Y., 1833). 
*N. Y. Journal of Commerce, July 16, 1834. 

* Springfield Republican and Journal, Feb. 17, 1838. 

* Byrdsall constantly defends his wing of the radicals from this charge. 
The disestablishment controversy in New England, of course, had its 
bearing on these later contests. 

* A'', y. Evening Post, Feb. 11, 12, 24, 27, March 2, 5. 7, 1836. 
•People vs. Fisher, et al, 14 Wendell 10 (1835). 



TWO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 



391 



tice Savage, '* by extravagant demands for wages, so en- 
hance the price of boots made in Geneva, for instance, that 
boots made elsewhere, in Auburn, for example, can be sold 
cheaper, is not such an act injurious to trade?" According 
to the court the New York law, in as much as it accepted 
the old English custom, prohibited all price-fixing unions, 
though eleven years had passed since they had been legal- 
ized by statute in England/ A few months later, in New 
York city, Judge Edwards took the same view and twenty 
tailors were sentenced to a heavy fine.' Excitement ran to 
a high pitch and riots were narrowly avoided by the vigi- 
lance of the police. 

The Evening Post pronounced it all a travesty of justice; 
it said that under this interpretation any temperance society, 
as a conspiracy against the rum trade, was illegal. Why 
should there not be " labor companies " as well as those of 
capitalists for manufacturing? The law must speedily be 
changed.'* But the Whig newspapers of the city expressed 
themselves as gratified that the majesty of the law had 
been vindicated. The American was glad to see a pause t.> 
those destructive tendencies traceable to Fanny Wright, and 
the Star and the Commercial Advertiser took the same 
view.* Many of the strikers were a dirty, loutish, foul- 
mouthed set. remarked the Courier and Enquirer (appar- 
ently with much truth), and Judge Edwards had done good 
service to the country (which, as the logicians say. was a 
non sequitur)/' 

' The decision was based on a phrase of the English common law, which 
had been written into the statutes of New York in the codification of 
1829. See comment of A''. Y. Courier and Enquirer, March 8, 1836. 

■' The charge is found in full in A^ Y. Journal of Commerce, May 31. 
1836, and the sentence, etc.. in the A'. }'. Evening Post. June 13, 1836. 

^ Evening Post, May 31, June i, 6, 7, 1836. 

' All of June 15, 1836. 

' May 31, 1836. 



392 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

If the law was to be changed, the workingmen decided, 
it must be done through party poHtics. On June 13, 1836, 
at a great meeting in the park, it was determined to form 
a *' separate and distinct party, around which the laboring 
classes and their friends can rally with confidence,'* and a 
state convention was summoned to meet in Utica the fol- 
lowing September/ A committee soon published an ad- 
dress calling for the election of delegates, and declaring 
against chartered combinations, prison labor, " forced con- 
stnictions of the statutes " and reliance on the precedents 
of British courts. They complained " that the leaders of 
the aristocracy of both the great political parties of the 
state . . . have deceived the workingmen by false pre- 
tences of political honesty and justice." " The Loco-Focos 
found themselves so heartily in accord with these sentiments 
that they joined the Workinginen at the Utica convention, 
and a coalition was effected in the name of the Friends of 
Equal Rights.^ 

The philosophy of politics professed at the convention 
was one of rights, natural and equal, and never vested by a 
special act of government ; " no man has a natural right to 
commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this 
is all from which the law ought to restrain him." * The 
state, then, was the individual's weapon of defense, not his 
instrument of construction, and certainly not existing for 
itself. Yet they charged the state with the responsibility 
for free and equal education : also, for a little time, it might 
be called upon energetically to redress the wrongs which it 

^N. Y. Evening Post, June 14, 1836. 
^ Ibid., July 23, 1836. 

* Byrdsall, History of the Loco-Foco Party, chap. v. It was first 
called a " convention appointed by the farmers, mechanics, and others 
friendly to their views," p. 71. 

* From the Declaration of Rights, ibid., p. 68. 



nVO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 



393 



had fostered. All wealth they thought to be the accumula- 
tion of surplus labor, and should remain available to the 
producing classes/ They took comfort in the spectacle of 
the decline of feudal privilege that marked the times in 
England, and were hopeful that the golden age through- 
out all Christendom could be restored. 

Colonel Young, whose sharp rebukes to his associates in 
the state senate had won him the regard of liqual Rights 
men, was invited to become the candidate for governor. He 
refused, but with such a strong endorsement of their prin- 
ciples that they used his letter as a tract. He knew, he said, 
that these principles were steadily advancing in the state, 
and wished them all success, but feared that in adopting a 
separate organization they might retard their progress.^ 
They did not follow his advice, but took a less distinguished 
leader. In the fall campaign they pledged their candidates 
for the assembly to work for the repeal of the restraining 
law and thus abolish the chartering of banks by special acts, 
and for the exclusion from circulation of all bank notes of 
less than ten dollars in value. They were obliged to vote 
for the election of judges by the people, and for short terms 
in office; for the repeal of any and all laws forbidding 
working-people to combine to fix their wages; and for an 
amendment making more effective the mechanics' lien law. 
They were also to obstruct all measures tending to restore 
imprisonment for debt : and to labor for a " more extended, 
equal and convenient system " of public school institutions.' 

The Equal Rights men took a hand in national affairs by 
submitting their " Declaration of Principles " to Martin 
Van Buren and Colonel R. M. Johnson, the national can- 

^ Byrdsall, pp. 59, 62, 75. 

' Ibid., p. 62 ; J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii. p. 457. They 
did nominate Isaac S. Smith, a Buffalo merchant. 
^ Byrdsall, p. 88. 



394 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

didates in the campaign of 1836. The formers answer 
they declared evasive, but the latter' s was deemed all they 
could desire. Colonel Johnson had long been a favorite 
with the workingmen. His efforts on behalf of debtors, 
and his views of banks in general, were most satisfactory,' 
and they had frequently expressed the hope that he would 
be the nominee for President.^ Now they would gladly 
have cast their ballots for him as the second officer, while 
withholding them from his more illustrious colleague; but 
of this the electoral system did not admit, and in conse- 
quence they came out for a constitutional amendment that 
would allow the popular election of President and Vice 
President with separate indication.^ 

The Evening Post sent forth its daily fulminations 
against stockjobbing and monopolies. It took the Jeffer- 
sonian view that laws should not be framed for more than 
twenty years, and maintained that this should certainly 
apply to charters of incorporation. At any rate they 
should be freely altered when the public weal demanded it.* 
The editors' enthusiasm in this matter sometimes befogged 
their sense of fitness; when Chief Justice Marshall, the 
steward of the Constitution, died in 1835, they remarked 
that on the whole his removal was a cause of rejoicing.'^ 
They gave tables of the profits of insurance companies, and 
expressed a deep abhorrence of these gambling enterprises. ** 

1 "A Kentuckian," Biographical Sketch of Col. Richard M. Johnson 
(N. Y., 1845). 

a£. g. the Man, Feb. 26, 27, March 10, x\pril 17, 23. 29, July to, 22. etc., 
1834. 

*Byrdsall, pp. 58-60. 

^Evening Post, Jan. 7, 11, Feb. 19, June 15, 1836. 

■'Ibid., July 8, 1835; see comment of Philip Hone, Diary, vol. i, pp. 
148-149. 

* Post, June 16, 1836. 



TWO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 395 

They classed all banks with lotteries, and exhibited a holy 
passion in delivering their sentiments on the currency, such 
as marked the later greenback and free-silver days. So 
William CuUen Bryant and his brilliant partner, William 
Leggett, penetrated with heroic and most useful zeal, to- 
gether with some nonsense, gained their title to the name 
of radicals, and reached readers that were not accessible to 
penny papers like the Transcript and the Man^ 

There were pamphlets also in which the universe was 
fearlessly explored and shrewd suggestions made for its re- 
ordering. Clinton Roosevelt, whom the Loco-Focos sent to 
the assembly, wrote upon The Mode of Protecting Domestic 
Industry Consistently with the Desires of Both the South 
and the North by Operating on the Currency,- criticizing 
tariffs with considerable perspicacity, and showing that a 
specie system which abolished all bank money, by lowering 
prices here would lessen the desire to buy commodities 
abroad because of their apparent cheapness. The chief ser- 
vice of his little monograph, which seems to have been 
widely read, was in calling the attention of mechanics to the 
falseness of the favorable comparisons between their wages 
and those of countries where the currency was not inflated. 
Wages made a variable standard with which to gauge pros- 
perity, he said; it were as well to measure lumber with an 
india-rubber tape. But though his propositions pointed to 
free-trade in general, he had no use for the self-interest 
arguments advanced by writers like McCulloch; let the 
community be served, he said, and individuals would not 
want.^ 

'Parke Godwin, Biography of William Cullen Bryant (N. Y., 1883), 
yol. i, pp. 253-262. 

' N. Y., 1833- 

' Pages 4, 5, 7, 9, 13, 37. 43. He objected to banks on seven points. 
He had a personal animus against them, as his family's extensive prop- 
erty had been lost, he thought, because of unsound business conditions 



3o6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

William H. Hale, who published Useful Knowledge for 
the Producers of Wealth ^ agreed with Roosevelt as to 
banks, tariffs, currency and corporations, but, alarmed at the 
concentration of wealth, went forward (while Karl Marx 
was still in grammar school) to condemn all "usury" to 
capital.^ Indeed, the LocivFoco candidate for governor, 
Isaac S. Smith, of Buffalo, in accepting his nomination in 
1836, averred that " No person possessing mental or phys- 
ical ability can have a moral right to consume that which 
he does not in some manner contribute to produce." and on 
the labor theory of value he excluded capital acquired by 
inheritance, gift or speculation from a share of income.^ 
The theor}^ of class struggle had been clearly stated : 

What distinguishes the present from evei7 other struggle in 
which the human race has been engaged [Frances Wright had 
written], is that the present is evidently, openly and acknowl- 
edgedly a war of class. ... It is the ridden people of the 
earth who are struggling to overthrow the " booted and spurred 
riders " whose legitimate title to work and starve them will no 
longer pass current.^ 

The Loco-Focos, by withdrawing their support from the 
regular Democratic tickets in the state, insured the election 
of many Whigs.'' But the ferment they had generated had 

due to banks. His social outlook had been much affected by Owen and 
Miss Wright. Byrdsall remarks of him that he had a mind " fertile 
either to construct systems, mechanical machines, or literary matter," 
History of Loco-Foco Party, p. 93. 
1 N. Y., 1833. 

* Pages 7, 9, 17-18. 19, 22. He said that labor and the United 
States was actually taxed $50,000,000 to support the bankers. 

' Byrdsall, p. 75 ; see also John Commerford, Address to the iVork- 
fngmen of New York (N. Y., 18140). 

* Free Enquirer, May 3, 1830. 

* This together with the Native American movement was responsible 
for the victories and the capture of the common council in New York 
in 1836, and the election of a Whig mayor in 1837. 



TIVO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 397 

worked far within their own party ; it spread to other states ; 
not only Colonel Johnson, of Kentucky, but Colonel Ben- 
ton, of Missouri, discovered that the Loco-Foco principles 
were sound, and, "' following in the footsteps of his prede- 
cessor," Van Buren became suspicious of all banks and 
proposed his Independent Treasury.' The panic of 1837 
seemed sadly to confirm the radicals' evil prophecies; and 
Democratic leaders soon took up their tenets as to banks 
and currency as the doctrine of the party. The Albany 
Argus, which had anathematized them as '' Jack Cades " 
and " Carbonari," came to preach their major principles. - 
When, a few years later. President Van Buren visited New 
York city, he attended the Bowery Theater in company 
with Alexander Ming, but recently despised as the " agra- 
rian " candidate for mayor, and other leaders of the Friends 
of Equal Rights.^ The amiable secretary, Byrdsall, might 
truly speak of the Loco-Foco Revolution, for the name and 
influence of the little group of " anti-monopolists " was for 
many years fastened on the Democratic party.* Consider- 
ing the issue, the somewhat long analysis of their principles 
and program has, it is believed, been warranted. 

It is scarcely necessary here to review the terrors of the 
panic, when fear bred fear as in some great catastrophe of 
nature. The President in his message to the special session 
of Congress, found the cause was the " redundancy of 
credit " which had marked the times, though he forgot the 
bank war and the specie circular, and might well, in the 
Democratic interest, have made some reference to the 
meagre crops and failures in Great Britain. When credit 

' Cf. H. von Hoist, Constitutional History of the United States 
(Chicago, 1878), vol. ii, pp. 202-203. 
- Byrdsall, p. 54- 

" Philip Hone, Diary, vol. i, pp. 365-366; Byrdsall, p. 17. 
* Byrdsall, p. vi. 



398 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

tightened in New York, the city had not yet recovered from 
the fire which had demoHshed more than twenty million 
dollars' worth of property some fourteen months before. 
In the spring of 1837 the disaster seemed complete. The 
\\'higs declared this the result of Jackson's meddling with 
the bank, and demanded that it be rechartered, but the new 
President sought escape in quite the opposite direction. 
When he saw that the deposit banks suspended specie pay- 
ment, as we have said, he proposed a Loco-Foco remedy: 
he would take the government funds away from banks and 
lock them in the treasury vaults; he would refuse bank- 
notes in all remittances to the nation and would not use them 
in payment to its creditors. It was this that made the Loco- 
Focos orthodox, and the Tammany Society and the Re- 
gency were forced to listen to their homilies with at least 
the affectation of respect.' 

But when the message was read in Congress and Silas 
Wright brought in the independent treasury bill which 
would divorce the government from banks, there were some 
Democrats who expressed surprise and indignation. In the 
great forensic contest which lasted intermittently through- 
out the next three years, a half dozen influential Democratic 
senators and more than twice as many members of the 
House were steadfast in their opposition. They would not 
countenance the Whig scheme to restore the Bank of the 
United States, but desired a continuation of the state banks 
as depositories, though under more restrictions than be- 
fore.^ The leader of these men, who, with their followers 
throughout the country, were called " Conservatives," was 

' It may be said that in the summer the feeling was still bitter, and 
some Democrats joined with the Whigs in wrongly attributing the 
flour riots in the city to the Loco-Focos. 

'^ N ties' Register, vol. liii, pp. 75, 126, 365, vol. liv, pp. 75, 79, 285; 
Congressional Globe, vol. v, App. 205, 211, 213. Wright had first sug- 
gested buying state bonds with the surplus funds. 



TJVO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 



399 



Senator Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, who had begun the fight 
the previous June in the preHminary debate/ He now 
argued on eleven points against the bill, defending the 
whole credit system as indispensable to business.^ The 
chief champion in the House of Representatives was John 
C Clark of Bainbridge, in Chenango County. The move- 
ment largely centered in New York, where by July, 1837, 
Tallmadge' s arguments were approved by many Demo- 
crats.^ 

The President's message of September had scarcely been 
reported, when a meeting of the Tammany General Com- 
mittee of fifty-one was convened. When a resolution to 
endorse the independent treasury was presented, thirty-two 
walked out, but by the quorum that was left the motion 
was carried -|)y a vote of eighteen to one.* The Democratic 
Republican Young Men's Committee then came together 
and expressed the heartiest sympathy with the President in 
his demands, and the bankers of the organization, who had 
kept the friendship of the legislature in recent years by 
contributions of their time and money, finally withdrew.' 
These Conservatives increased in number day by day as the 
settled purpose of Van Buren grew apparent. In Novem- 
ber, before election, they held a meeting under Judah Ham- 
mond, and drew^ up a statement of grievance and reproach, 
which the Whigs hailed with delight.^ At a well-attended 
gathering on the second of January, 1838, they organized 
a committee of their own. according to the custom, with a 

1 Cong. Debates, vol. xiii, p. 75. 

* C/. H. Greeley, Recollections, p. 123; Niles' Register, vol. Hii. p. 75- 
^ Byrdsall, pp. 158-159. 

*G. Myers, History of Tammany Hall, pp. 132-134. 
'"N. Y. Evening Post, Sept. 26, 1837. 

* iV. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Nov. 3, 7, 1837. 



400 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

president, iifty-seven vice-presidents, fourteen secretaries, 
and a general committee of vigilance made up of represen- 
tatives from every ward. They issued a stinging address 
against the Loco-Foco principles. ^ 

But though the Conservatives were naturally stronger in 
the city, there were many scattered through the state. In 
October, Tallmadge. Clark and Hammond called a state 
convention, which met in Syracuse, and resolved by general 
vote firmly to support Seward, named by the Whigs for 
governor, against Marcy, whom they called the Loco-Foco 
candidate.^ It was hinted that the bankers employed other 
means than those of oratory and resolves, and there was a 
general impression that they paid liberally for the fireworks 
and shouters.^ Their influence the Whigs acknowledged as 
a potent factor in the victory that followed, and in grateful 
recognition of the service, whose continuance they might 
secure, they re-elected Tallmadge to the Senate for six years 
more, in spite of the remonstrances of Fillmore, John C. 
Spencer and some others of the faithful, whose ambitions 
were neglected.* 

The following autumn the Conservatives again convened 
at Syracuse to pledge their loyalty to the Whig leaders in 

^ Proceedings and Address of the Democratic Republicans. Opposed 
to the Sub-Treasury (N. Y., 1838), pp. 1-16. 

• J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 486. 

' See Tallmadge's reply in Senate, Cong. Globe, vol. vi, p. 620, and 
D. S. Alexander, Political History of th^ State of New York, vol. ii, 
pp. 24-25. 

*T. Weed, Autobiography, pp. 460-461. Van Buren made out so 
plausible a case for the independent treasury that outside of New York 
state the Whigs generally lost ground. One factor besides the support 
of the Conservatives in securing Seward's victory was the resentment 
in the northern and western counties, who sympathized with the Cana- 
dian rebels of 1837, and thought Van Buren's attitude needlessly severe : 
see J. A. Haddock, History of Jefferson County (Philadelphia, 1894). 
p. 21. 



TJVO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 401 

the presidential campaign, with five hundred delegates, rep- 
resenting nearly evei-y county. They felicitated New York- 
state for rebuking the national leaders despite " the com- 
bined power of agrarianism and infidelity leagued in their 
support," set forth their arguments against the new finan- 
cial policy and defended the state banks against the calum- 
nies of the ignorant levellers. They referred to the inevi- 
table sufferings of business if the nation's funds were with- 
drawn from investment and circulation. There would be a 
painful shortage if the government insisted on drawing a 
great part of the specie into its vaults. Trade demanded 
half a billion dollars in currency. " How much more freely 
will you breathe when the screw of the President shall have 
brought you down to sixty million dollars ?" ^ Such reflec- 
tions brought the Conservatives to build up county organ- 
izations and work effectively in favor of their old oppo- 
nents. After 1840 many stayed among the Whigs as a 
business party, though some gave support to Tyler in his 
opposition to a national bank.^ 

^ Miles' Register, vol. Ivii, pp. 187-190. During this campaign Tall- 
madge made the charge, which though denied was widely quoted, that 
Marcy had privately expressed to him his strong disapproval of the 
administration's Loco-Focoism ; see New Haven Palladium, Oct. 30, 
1839, and Albany Argus quoted in the Canandaigua Ontario Messenger, 
Oct. 23, 1839. 

" There is scarcely a movement in history more susceptible of the 
economic interpretation, than that of the Conservatives. Mr. C. C 
Latour of Columbia University has found by investigation that most of 
the leaders in New York city were bank officers or heavy stockholders. 

E. g., see list in Proceedings and Address . . . January 2, 1838, and the 
following: E. T. Ferine, The Story of the Trust Co. (N. Y., 1916), 
p. 15; P. G. Hubert, The Merchants' National Bank (N. Y., 1903), P- 37'- 

F. B. Stevens, History of the Savings Bank Associations of New 
York (N. Y., 1915), p. 569; Walter Barrett, Old Merchants of New- 
York, vol. iii, p. 229; Byrdsall, History of the Loco-Foco Party, p. 26; 
J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 478. N. P. Tallmadge 
was a director of the Poughkeepsie Bank; see E. Piatt, History of 
Poughkeepsie, p. 107. 



^02 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

The Whig victory had begun in 1837, when besides the 
mayoralty of New York they gained a hundred and one 
assembly seats to their opponents' twenty-seven. Six of 
eight senators elected were also of their party, but in the 
upper house they could not claim a clear majority until after 
the election of 1839/ Many able men, like the scholarly 
D. D. Barnard, of Albany, General Porter, of Niagara, and 
D. B. Ogden, of New York, who had been in forced re- 
tirement for a dozen years, now were able to devote their 
talents once again to the affairs of state. They applied 
themselves to see what could be done for business. The 
Democrats in 1835, moved somewhat by radical influence, 
had passed a law prohibiting the circulation as currency of 
bank bills of less than five dollars face value. ^ In a country 
where there were few gold and silver mines, this was de- 
cidedly embarrassing to trade, and numerous petitions were 
presented praying for repeal, but the majority could not be 
moved. 

Scarcely had the legislature come together in 1838, when 
a Whig brought in a measure to restore small bills, which 
was promptly endorsed by the assembly. But the Demo- 
cratic senate would not yield the principle, and insisted on 
an amendment that suspended the prohibitory^ law for two 
years only.^ In the campaign of 1838, the question figured 
prominently, as " small bill seward " was pitted against 
" Big Bill Marcy," * and at the following session when 
the senate was more favorable, the old law was entirely re- 

*J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 517. 

2 Chap. 46, Laws of 1835; see also chap. 155 and resolution of April 
20, 1835, ibid. 

^ Chap. 51, Lows of 1838-. it provided for different dates of final 
retirement, $1, $2, and $3 bills before July, 1840. After Jan. i, 1841, 
there v*rere to be no bills between $5 and $10. 

* F. Bancroft, Life of Sezvard, vol. i, p. 67. 



TWO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 



403 



pealed/ The Democrats in their long period of power had, 
as has been said, incorporated many banks; but the major- 
ity of business men were irritated that these monopolies of 
issue were parcelled out to faithful politicians, rather than 
to serve legitimate commercial needs." The Whig assem- 
bly, therefore, in 1838, passed a general banking bill, de- 
vised by WilHs Hall of New York city,^ which, when the 
opposition in the senate had been overcome, became a law. 
The shameful bartering of credit privilege, which had so 
long disturbed the state, was now over.* 

The ways and means committee of the assembly in that 
year, true to the tradition of the party, brought in a report 
which outlined an elaborate scheme of internal improve- 
ment. It was written by the chairman. Samuel B. Ruggles, 
the New York banker, whom the Democrats considered an 
amateur, " silk-stocking " politician, but who was finally 
recognized as a competent American economist.''' He could 
not deny himself superlatives when he contemplated how 
trade would be benefited by more facilities for transporta- 
tion, and was most optimistic as to the state's ability to fur- 
nish them. The success of the two principal canals had 
surpassed the boldest expectations; and while the revenues 
had been expended, they were not " gone," as Democrats 
maintained, but were " invested " in more public works. It 
was true that not all the creditors who had supplied the 
seven millions for the great waterway had been repaid, but 
this was due to their reluctance to accept their payment be- 

^ Qiap. 30, Laws of 1839. 

* R. E. Chaddock, History of the Safety Fund Banking System, p. 345- 
' H. Greeley, Recollections, p. 126; the Democratic votes were cast 

against the bill; J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii, p. 484. 

* The restraining law had been modified under pressure of public 
opinion in 1837 ; see Chap. 20, Laws of 1837. 

^ F. W. Seward, Life of Seward, p. 439; Appleton's Cyclopedia of 
American Biography. 



404 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



fore their bonds matured; the money had been put aside, 
and the constitutional objection that the further revenues 
could not be spent for other improvements till the last re- 
ceipt was signed, was frivolous. Why not a ship-canal? 
Why should not the state construct more railroads? 

Ruggles had no liking for the Jeffersonian maxim, that 
the government " should never borrow a dollar without 
laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest an- 
nually, and the principal in good time." Jefferson had lived 
in a time when expenditure was usually for war, which was 
a waste ; he had not realized that a government could make 
investments. If the state desired to be forehanded, the 
canal tolls would warrant an indebtedness of $40,000,000. 
" It is evident," he said, " that $500,000 of revenue will 
serve as a basis of finance for $10,000,000 debt." Com- 
merce must be served.^ Azariah C. Flagg, who was still 
the state comptroller, made a firm remonstrance. He main- 
tained that the net revenues were overestimated and in 
Whig computations no account was taken of necessary canal 
expense and repairs. It was going to the verge of pru- 
dence, certainly, to borrow money with provision for the 
interest only." But despite the protests of the comptroller 
and the governor, the Whig assembly virtually met the 
heavy demands of Ruggles, though the senate would allow 
a loan of but $4,000,000.* 

* S. B. Ruggles, Report upon the Finances and Internal Improvements 
of New York (N. Y., 1838). A law of 1835 had directed the canal 
commissioners to enlarge the Erie Canal, setting no limit. The com- 
missioners had felt themselves restrained, however, beheving that con- 
stitutionally they could not contract for improvements for which they 
could not pay in cash from surplus revenues from the canal. An appH- 
cation to the legislature had produced Mr. Ruggles' report; see J. H. 
Dougherty, Constitutional History of the State of New York (N. Y., 
1915). PP- 151-152. 

-Annual Report, Comptroller, 1838, p. 21. 

* Cf. Messages from the Governors, vol. iii, p. 544- 



TIVO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 



405 



William H. Seward, elected governor in November, was 
not expected to be moderate when the development of nat- 
ural resources was concerned. He had two heroes, Qinton 
and John Quincy Adams, both of whose biographies he 
wrote in terms of highest admiration for their " magnifi- 
cent conceptions." It was one of the disappointments of 
his administration that Democratic opposition in the legis- 
lature prevented the erection of a monument to the great 
governor, in whose service he had entered politics.^ As 
senator he had been tireless in advocating more improve- 
ments; when out of public office he had been actively con- 
cerned in the movement for the state-supported Erie Rail- 
road ; - now, as chief executive, he had his greatest oppor- 
tunity to recommend his policy. 

In the first message he advised the annual expenditure 
for ten years of $4,000,000, for which the tolls of the canal 
would furnish payment before 1865." His hearers were 
responsive and voted generous appropriations, providing 
only for the payment of the interest,* and " owners of prop- 
erty, contractors, brokers, builders and expectants of all 
classes created a coalition strong enough to control the activ- 
ities of the legislature, and plunged the state deeper and 
deeper into debt." ^ The Democrats before him had not en- 
tirely refrained from similar enterprises, but they had been 
stung to action most sharply by the taunts of parsimony 

' F. W. Seward, Life of Seward, p. 426. 

' Ibid., pp. 341-344- 

^ Messages from the Governors, vol. iii, p. 735 ; Seward, Works, vol. 
ii, p. 609 ; F. Bancroft, Life of Seward, vol. i, p. 88. 

* " To avoid the necessity of direct taxation, however small, the obvious 
and sound rule of our financial policy will be to adjust the loans of each 
year so that the annual interest on the whole debt may always fall wthin 
the clear income of the state," Senate Document, no. 96, 1839, P- 12. 

^ D. C. Sowers, Finan£ial History of New York State, p. 66. 



4o6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

flung at them by their opponents. PubHc sentiment had 
been stimulated by a society which first met at Albany in 
January, 1836, and which was principally officered by 
Whigs/ Probably most Democrats, in 1838, approved the 
attitude of Comptroller Flagg, while some, like Colonel 
Young, were even more intolerant. " Man alone." said he, 
" sells his offspring to speculators and monopolists, and this 
by a gross desecration of terms is denominated Internal 
Improvement." " 

In the campaign of 1840 the Whigs were called the 
" forty-million-dollar party," a name which they could not 
shake off for many years. ^ But the charges of extrava- 
gance could not defeat them. The larger cities, in the hope 
of trade, generally gave Whig majorities, and it has been 
ascertained that in those sections where the staple farmers 
most desired an outlet to the city markets. Governor Sew- 
ard was overwhelmingly preferred.* As his party was re- 
turned to power, the "more speedy enlargement" policy was 
continued, but the heavy debts contracted depressed the 
credit of the state. Complaints from those who were not 
beneficiaries so grew in volume that the Democrats con- 
trolled the legislature of 1842, and Flagg, again appointed 
as comptroller,^ declared that the state must abandon its re- 
liance on the future tolls of the canals, or come to bank- 
ruptcy. Thereupon the " stop-and-tax law " was enacted 

^J. D. Hammond, Political History, vol. ii. p. 457; N. Y. Evening Post, 
Jan. 19, 1836. 

*F. Byrdsall, History of the Loco-Foco Party, p. 63. Hale in his 
Useful Knowledge, pp. 25-27, and the A^. Y. Evening Post. Jan. 7. 1836, 
take a similar view. 

^Albany Argus, Sept. 25. 1840; Ontario Messenger, July 21, 1839; 
N. Y. Evening Post, Oct. 31, Nov. 3, 1846. 

* Julius Winden, "The Influence of the Erie Canal," pp. 171. I73-I75- 

' This and similar state officers were then appointed by the legislature. 



TWO VIEWS OF VESTED RIGHTS 407 

under Michael Hoffman's leadership ; the public works were 
soon suspended, and short-time bonds, well-covered by tax- 
ation, were issued to repay the debts the Whigs had brought 
upon the state/ That the people took a like view was evi- 
denced in the elections of 1842 and 1844, and by their call 
for a convention to revise the constitution, which, among 
some other changes, would set a limit to the state debt. 

The great enthusiasm for internal improvements at the 
public cost had run its course. In a country of magnificent 
distances, means of transportation were properly consid- 
ered indispensable: men of enterprise could well regard 
delay in their construction as a kind of crime. Yet, how- 
ever plausible the generalization, individual enterprises were 
oftentimes regarded as risky experiments. Much capital 
was required to complete them; rich men in America 
reasonably hesitated to entrust their money to local com- 
panies at a time when credit lists were not available; and 
even if they had been willing, there was not enough accu- 
mulated surplus wealth in this young country to have satis- 
fied a half of the demands. But in Europe, and especially 
in England, where manufactures were so profitable, there 
was capital enough, which, now in times of peace when 
nations had cut down their borrowing, was ready to be 
loaned on good security. These capitalists, however, were 
naturally even more reluctant than the few American mil- 
lionaires to lend to individuals or joint-stock corporations 
so far away. The solution was in government responsibil- 

^ Annual Report, Comptroller, 1843, pp. 11, 13, 21, 22; J. H. 
Dougherty, Constitutional History, p. 154. A portion of the Democratic 
party (the "Hunkers") in the next few years took a Whiggish view, 
and desired to devote the surplus to improvements rather than to the 
payment of the debt, but Gov. Silas Wright in 1846 prevented such a 
law by his veto; see J. D. Hammond, Life of Silas Wright, pp. 286, 
et seq. See also J. A. Roberts, A Century in the Comptroller's Office 
(Albany, 1^7), PP- 40-4i- 



4o8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

ity, which, after the Erie Canal commenced its phenomenal 
earnings, seemed sufficient for entire safety, and on this 
guaranty milHons upon milHons in foreign bills of credit 
had been issued for American improvements. Not only on 
financial grounds the state's initiative seemed necessary, 
but state control of stone roads and canals, which anyone 
could use who had a cart or boat, seemed quite appropriate. 
But in the early 'forties conditions had changed. State 
responsibility was no longer the magic key to foreign cof- 
fers, since Mississippi and some other commonwealths had 
defaulted on their interest payments and talked openly of 
repudiation.' Now that the experimental stage was over, 
domestic capital, augmented by industrial earnings, was 
ready for investment in private enterprises, especially in 
railroads, which were destined before the decade was com- 
pleted to supersede canals. A railroad with its special roll- 
ing stock, in spite of Governor Seward's opinion, could not 
be considered as an open highway. So for them state sup- 
port no longer seemed necessary, nor state control appro- 
priate, and business men instead of lobbying to induce the 
state itself to develop its resources, came to fear the state's 
curtailment of their profits, and after their charter privi- 
leges were received they resented legislative interference. 

' See G. W. Green's article in Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science, 
vol. iii, pp. 603-613. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Who Were the Whigs? 

The campaign of 1840 began directly after the inaugu- 
ration of Van Buren. The Whigs in 1836 had been able 
only to annoy the enemy with local candidates, but with 
their practice in co-operation they were determined that four 
years later the Jackson dynasty should end. It was learned 
with apprehension that Mr. Webster might resign his seat 
in the Senate and D. B. Ogden, Philip Hone, Chancellor 
Kent and others of his New York friends planned a dem- 
onstration to dissuade him. On March 15, 1837, he visited 
the city, and was escorted to the spacious " saloon " in 
Niblo's Garden, at Broadway and Prince Street, where be- 
fore a large and distinguished audience he delivered one of 
the greatest campaign speeches of our history, and certainly 
the greatest of his own career.^ His summary of the 
" reign of Andrew Jackson " was a model of partisan nar- 
rative. The " executive encroachment," the drilling of the 
office-holders, the destruction of the currency and the dis- 
turbance of exchange, he reviewed with dignity and seem- 
ing impartiality, avoiding stricture and invective, yet pre- 
senting his selected evidence with such consummate skill as 
to convict the administration of incredible stupidity. He 
recommended the internal improvement of the west by 
national aid, either by direct subventions or by a thorough- 
going distribution of the revenues from the sale of public 

' H. C. Lodge, Daniel Webster (Boston, 1883), pp. 238-239; E. Ruggles, 
A Picture of New York in 1846 (N. Y., 1846) ; D. Webster, Writings 
(National Edition), vol. ii, pp. 189-230. 

4*9 



4IO ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

lands, according to the population of the states.^ As soon 
as the compromise arrangement would allow, he favored a 
high tariff, which would protect the manufacturers and 
workingmen " against the cheaper, ill-paid, half -fed, and 
pauper labor of Europe." In his grand style he defended 
the Bank of the United States, and implied that it should 
speedily be rechartered. 

Not often were the Whigs so clear and frank in the out- 
line of their policy, for south was south and north was 
north, and no program would be pleasing to both sections — 
in fact, the southern partisans, quite out of place in their 
association with old Adams men, did not take kindly to pro- 
grams at all. In the north, it was to be a campaign of 
criticism of the financial policy of the administration. When 
the occasion seemed propitious, the orators spoke cautiously 
against the annexation of Texas, and condemned the Semi- 
nole War as merely an expedient to save the slaves of f ron- 

1 This would, of course, enable the states more easily to pay their 
debts, many of which were owed to British creditors on account of 
loans for internal improvement. The proposition aflforded the ground, 
however slight, for the Democratic contention that Webster and his 
party were arguing for an assumption of state debts by the federal 
treasury. "Because we saw that . . . British Bankers who had been 
foolish enough to speculate in them [the securities], became at first 
suspicious, then inquisitive, and at length clamorous on the subject of 
their final redemption, and were silenced only by the assurance of the 
' God-like Daniel ' that the general government could assume the liabili- 
ties of the states . . . because we saw something suspicious in the 
mission to England at such enormous expense to his party [in 1839], 
and his sudden abandonment while at London of his claims to the 
Presidency . . . because we knew that such was the manifest tendency 
of the ' Distribution ' system, so zealously advocated by the party at large 
— for these and other reasons we more than suspected that the ' whigs ' 
were secretly in favor of a direct assumption of the State debts by 
pledging the credit of the country for their redemption." Troy Budget, 
Extra (Columbia University Library) ; see also Rough Hewer, Sept. 3. 
1840, on "British gold." -Seward had strongly favored the measure; 
see Works, vol. i, pp. 415-416. 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS f 4II 

tier southerners from capture by the Indians. The defalca- 
tions of the Democratic office-holders, in the New York- 
customs house and in the western land-offices, was a grate- 
ful theme to discourse upon at intervals; but the chief and 
constant issue was the suffering of business, and the proved 
wrong-headedness and incompetency of those who had 
tampered with the delicate machinery of credit. That is, 
the financial argument was paramount so long as questions 
of governmental policy were seriously debated. But the 
campaign of 1840 was not distinguished for serious debate. 

It is not necessary here to rehearse the story of how 
Harrison and Tyler were selected as the party candidates. 
Clay could not win the abolitionists and Anti-Masons of 
New York or the militant free-traders of the south, and 
Webster had offended state-rights men; Thurlow Weed, 
more than any other, brought about the choosing of the 
western general. But Webster was rejected on another 
ground; he was " aristocratic." This consideration showed 
how completely the old order had changed. The men of 
wealth well realized, now liberty and equality had shown 
their power, that in enthusiastic profession of fraternity 
lay their only course of safety. Property rights were secure 
only when it was realized that in America property was 
honestly accessible to talent, however humble in its early 
circumstances. The Whigs found it needful to disavow as 
vehemently as they could any and all pretensions to a caste 
superiority in political life. Mr. Webster, at Patchogue. 
offered to strike with his great fist any man who called him 
an aristocrat, though Benjamin F. Butler repeated this ugly 
charge without enduring any violence save that of Wel)- 
ster's thundering invective.^ 

A fierce rivalry in simplicity sprang up between the par- 

' Rough Hewer, Oct. 8, 1840. 



412 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

ties. Charles Ogle, of Pennsylvania, made a speech in Con- 
gress arraigning President Van Buren as a sybarite, who 
drank Madeira wine and had made a palace of the people's 
White House by his enormous expenditures for decoration/ 
This speech, spread broadcast through the country, was the 
Whigs' most effective tract. It was true, of course, that the 
presidential mansion had been gradually furnished since 
rebuilding after the " late war," and the papers, therefore, 
could point contrasts between the present state and that of 
former days when Adams had received his visitors in an 
East Room of almost Spartan bareness.' They circulated 
drawings of the President, pictured as the model of sar- 
torial perfection, seated at his table heaped with massive 
gold and silver service.^ What could be expected of a chief 
magistrate who was reputed to cologne his whiskers ?^ John 
Quincy Adams shuddered as Van Buren grew inordinately 
fat." 

Administration men defiantly retorted that the " Democ- 
racy is principally composed of the tillers of the ground, 
and the mechanics," '^ and founded Rough Hewers' Asso- 
ciations to offset the Tippecanoe Clubs which were multi- 
plying through the coimtry.* But it was vain for Demo- 
crats to gibe at opponents as silk-stockings, for the Whigs 
immediately pointed to the offensively luxurious Van Buren, 
and sang : 

1 Congressional Globe, vol. viii, p. 327. On the early consideration of 
this policy among the Whigs, see J. C. Spencer to Weed, Sept. 21, 1832, 
T. W. Barnes, Memoir of Weed, p. 44. 

*£. g. New Haven Palladium. April 10. 1840. 

^ Ibid., Feb. 17, 1840; see also issues of March 20 and April 3. 

* Memoir, vol. x, p. 176. 

* Elder John Leland in Rough Hewer, July 16, 1840. 
*Ibid., April 23. 27, 1840. 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS f 413 

" We've tried your purse — proud lords, who love 
In palaces to shine ; 
But we'll have a ploughman President 
Of the Cincinnatus line." ^ 

Eminent statesmen sitting on the platform at the ralUes 
ftwayed to the rhythm of such exalted strains; Joseph 
Hoxie, a distinguished New York merchant, grew famous 
as the greatest choral leader of the campaign.^ The Re- 
gency in despair dubbed their opponents the " sing-sing 
party," and abandoned rivalry for criticism of such 
methods.^ 

When a Democratic paper in an ill-starred moment made 
a jest about the obscure Harrison, who, if left alone, would 
be content with his log cabin and hard cider, the Whigs 
realized that their opportunity had come. It mattered not 
that the general really was in fairly comfortable circum- 
stances and had recently been drawing an annual stipend of 
six thousand dollars ; he was to be the log-cabin candidate. 
It was observed that the Democrats should be discreet in 
choosing a vice-presidential candidate, for "Mr. Van Buren. 
in consequence of his course of luxurious living to which 
he is addicted, may pass off any day without a moment's 
warning.'' * Compare all this, exclaimed the outraged 
Whigs, with the severe simplicity of Harrison, the farmer 
of North Bend, whom visitors had recently discovered flail 
in hand, threshing out his grain upon his barn floor." 

I have been in his log cabin [said Webster]. He lives in it 

• From " Should Good Old Cider Be Despised ? ", Log Cabin Song- 
book (N. Y., 1840), p. 15. 

^D. M. Fox, History of Political Parties (Des Moines, 1895), P- ^^6; 
W. Barrett, Old Merchants of New York, vol. ii, pp. 114. 116-117. 
■■* Log Cabin, June 13, 1840. 

* Richmond Whig, Aug. 7, 1840. 

■'• Ne^v Haven Palladium, Feb. 7, 1840. 



414 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

Still. And he has made an addition to it, as many of us do. 
He keeps a horse. Well, I found him to be a very hospitable 
gentleman ; the string of his latch is not pulled in. And I gave 
him my confidence.^ 

It was useless to argue about treasury notes or the recon- 
dite details of public revenues; if they could keep this pic- 
ture before the people by speeches, songs and drawings, 
they could win. In good hard cider they toasted 

" The hard-fisted Farmer, 
The honest old Farmer; 
We go for the Farmer that's work'd the farm well." - 

To qualify before the great electorate, Governor Seward 
traveled in an old green-painted wagon, and chose to ride 
in row-boats, even when steam ferries were available.^ The 
Whigs erected their log cabins in nearly every village to dis- 
pense hard cider and enthusiasm, and they were enormously 
successful, though the Democrats referred to them as 
" groggeries,' and stirred the apprehension of the temper- 
ance societies at the amount of this liquor consumed, some- 
times, they said, " diluted with whiskey." In rebuke they 
drank their toasts in pure cold water.^ 

Mr. Webster, in his Saratoga speech, apologized pro- 
fusely because the house of his nativity had not been made 
of logs; but he was quick to claim that honor for his elder 
brothers and sisters. " If I am ever ashamed of it . . . ," 
he fervently exclaimed, " may my name and the name of 

' Writings, vol. xiii, p. 141. 

^ From " Come to the Contest." Log Cabin Songbook, p. 29. 

'^Ontario Messenger, July 19, 21, 1829. Seward had suffered some- 
what earlier in his career because of a report that while travelling in 
Europe he had met too many aristocrats; see F. Bancroft, W. H. 
Seward, vol. i, p. 44. 

^ Rough Hewer, May 26, Aug. 13, Sept. 10, and Mohawk Courier, 
quoted in ibid., June 18, 1840. 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS? 415 

my posterity be blotted from the memory of mankind !'' ^ 
In a countr)' where most people still made their homes in 
log cabins,- such sentiments were popular. It was felt to 
be the blessing of America, not that all should stay log- 
cabin dwellers through their lives, but that anyone begin- 
ning in humble circumstances could by dint of application 
become as great a man as Air. Webster. The log-cabin, 
coon-skin pageantry expressed the feeling of fraternity 
deepened by the confident individualism which characterized 
American society in the nineteenth century.^ 

Confronted with so prevalent and indigenous a sentiment, 
the theory of class war, advanced by Frances Wright, 
seemed a curious exotic phenomenon, confined to industrial 
cities which were then not typically American. In the vic- 
torious campaign of 1840, the old aristocracy surrendered 
its pretensions to prescriptive rights, which had long since 
become absurd. Some scions of old families came down 

' Writings, vol. iii, p. 30. 

2 W. E. Dodd, Expansion and Conflict (N. Y., 1915). P- 208. 

' It was an evidence of the democratization of American society that 
women took so prominent a part in the campaign of 1840, being present 
in large numbers at the great raUies and sometimes the object of special 
attention from the orators ; see T. H. Benton, Thirty Years' View, vol. 
ii, p. 206; A. C. Coleman, Life of John J. Crittenden (Philadelphia. 
1873), vol. i, p. 127; N. Y. Express, May 9, 1840. Gay dreaded the 
influence of women on the abolition movement. He said : " I intreat 
that portion of my country-women who have given their countenance 
to abolition, to remember that they are ever most loved and honored 
when moving in their own appropriate and delightful sphere " ( Works, 
vol. viii, p. 159). Women in politics presented a phenomenon bewilder- 
ing to southern statesmen. " By the bye," wrote A. P. Powers to 
Howell Cobb, Oct., 1840, " this making politicians of women is some- 
thing new under the sun " (A. C. Cole, The Whig Party in the South, 
Washington, 1913, p. 61). Possibly the new education for women was 
making a difference ; see Albany Argus, May 8, 13, 1828; A. W. Calhoun, 
Social History of the American Family (Cleveland, 1917 — ), vol. ii, p. 
188; Memoir of Frances Wright; Commons, etc.. History of Labor, 
vol. i, pp. 354-356; F. W. Seward, Life of Seward, p. 388. 



4i6 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

like commoners to fight their way in the poHtical arena, 
while others, feeling that they stood no better at the polls 
than did their servants, withdrew to the secure serenities of 
inconspicuous but comfortable houses, filled with old ma- 
hogany, old wines, old friends, and memories of ancient 
power. 

Such is the broad view which confronts the historian to- 
day, though, no doubt, few saw it then. They knew it only 
as a furious campaign, replete with novelty. And there was 
novelty enough! When old caste distinctions had been 
softened, and before the great immigration of the later 
'forties, the American people were homogeneous, like- 
minded, and, in consequence, uncritical. They were thus 
susceptible to slight suggestions, which with cumulative 
force carried them to queer extravagances. 

The aristocracy, as such, no longer took a part in politics. 
" As they cannot occupy in public a position equivalent to 
what they hold in private life," observed De Tocqueville, 
" they abandon the former, and give themselves up to the 
latter; and they constitute a private society in the state, 
which has its own tastes and pleasures." ^ In New York, 
as in other large commercial cities, social lines were drawn 
by some with a ridiculous assumption of finality, and snob- 
bery was practised as an art, though it brought a smile to 
old-world visitors.^ It was fashionable to contemn the 
politics of the time, but many who took this pose made little 

'A. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Cambridge, 1863), vol. i, 
p. 228. 

-T. Hamilton, Men and Manners in America, vol. i, p. 65. H. Mar- 
tineau, Society in America (2nd edition, London, 1839), vol. i, p. 13; 
F. J. Grund, Aristocracy in America, vol. i, p. 161. Some who had 
recently acquired wealth, now by the ostentatious leisure and extrava- 
gant dress of their ladies set up pretensions as aristocrats; see A. W. 
Calhoun, Social History of the American Family (Cleveland, 1918), 
vol. ii, chap. x. 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS? 417 

secret of their fond belief that democracy would finally 
overreach itself, and that talent, property and station would 
again be given proper influence.' With opinions unchanged, 
they did not, however, give them voice in public, lest they 
be insulted." 

Captain Marryat, after visiting the United States, de- 
clared that this great society must disintegrate, unless a 
political aristocracy were reconstituted. 

I do not mean an aristocracy of title ; I mean an aristocracy of 
talent and power which wealth will give — an aristocracy which 
will lead society and purify it. How is this to be obtained in 
a democracy? — simply by purchase. ... In a country like 
America where the suffrage is universal, the people will even- 
tually sell their birthright. ... I say it has been done already, 
for it was done at the last New York election. The democratic 
party was sure of success, but a large sum of money was 
brought into play . . . and the Whigs carried the day.^ 

' F. J. Grund, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 27, 220-221, 309-311. 

' T. Hamilton, op. cit., vol. i, p. 156; F. Marryat. Diary in America, 
second series (Philadelphia, 1840), p. 121. Capt. Marryat says: "That 
the morals of the nation have retrograded from the total destruction 
of the aristocracy, both in the government and in society, which has 
taken place within the last ten years, is most certain," pp. 122, 149. He 
found the New York merchants nearest his ideal in America, pp. 133, 140. 
For an example of pessimism as to the political future, see J. Fenimore 
Cooper, The American Democrat (Cooperstown. 1838), p, 6. 

^ F. Marryat, Diary, second series, p. 156. The captain refers to the 
lavish expenditures by Moses H. Grinnell, R. M. Blatchford, R. C. Wet- 
more, and other business men, who hired about 200 " floaters " from 
Philadelphia at $22 each in the campaign of 1838. The business seems 
to have been thoroughly done. When in 1840 these leading Whigs were 
brought before the recorder's court, they pleaded that the Philadelphians 
had been engaged only to insure the purity of the election against 
Democratic floaters who were coming from New Jersey. On these 
representations the case was dismissed! See Rough Hewer, Oct. 30, 
1840, and G. Myers, History of Tammany Hall, pp. 140- 141. It is, 
perhaps, appropriate to speak a further word on Whig campaign finance. 



4i8 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

But the future of America as foreseen by Captain Marr- 
yat and the gentlemen with whom he had conversed came 
no nearer to the truth than that which Frances Wright had 
prophesied. In the middle of the nineteenth century we 
were not to see a ruling gentry or a war of classes. The 
aristocrats of birth, when unsupported by wealth or talent, 
dropped into a respectable obscurity, while the well-to-do 
among them were soon inoculated with the feverish desire, 
common in a bounteous but undeveloped country, to accu- 
mulate more property and by this means outshine their 
fellows. As manufacturers, railroads and finance absorbed 
their interest, they found the game too fascinating to allow 
them leisure actively to take a part in politics. They, of 
course, voted the Whig ticket, and ladies boasted that they 
could easily convert a wealthy Democrat into a Whig; ^ 
but they contented themselves with making the government 
safe for business by generous contributions to the cam- 
paign funds. When, indeed, they did discuss affairs of 
state, the great ideals of the anti-slavery crusade and "mani- 
fest destiny " elicited their praise or condemnation. The 

Even then the conservative party drew large contributions into its chest. 
" I hope our rich men will shell out," wrote H. Ketcham to Follett in 
1832, and confident appeals were addressed to such men as General 
Porter (Follett Correspondence, Sept. 13, 1832) ; in that campaign it 
was complained that the National Republicans had unlimited resources 
(G. Myers, op. cit., pp. 107-108). Marcy wrote to Jesse Hoyt, that he 
feared the U. S. Bank would use $50,000 in the state (D. S. Alexander, 
Political History, vol. i, p. 395), Weed tells how R. B. Minturn, Grinnell, 
Blatchford, and others brought him $8,000 for distribution, a few days 
before the election of 1839, and pays tribute to the broad view taken 
by the New York merchants, on this and other occasions {Autobio- 
graphy, pp. 448, 476-477, 503. 504 "). On the other hcind, the Whigs did 
take great pains to check illegal voting in the interest of Tammany ; see, 
for example, mss. record of Fifth Ward Whig Committee of New 
York City, Oct. 16, 1840 (N. Y. Pub. Lib.). 

^ F. J. Grund, Aristocracy in America, vol. i, p. 221. 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS ^ 4IQ 

economic questions which had stirred the yeasty thirties 
were for a time forgotten. 

Akhough the wildest projects for rejuvenating all soci- 
ety marked the next decade, there was no concerted move- 
ment of artisans against the capitalists as had been loudly 
heralded by the Workingmen and Friends of Equal Rights. 
The expected crisis, whose frightful shadow had been cast 
upon the pulpit and the press, did not arrive. In the first 
place, many of the changes for which the workmen had 
contended in their parties, were vouchsafed them by shrewd 
Democratic and Whig leaders, eager for their votes. The 
panic of 1837 had temporarily deprived many of employ- 
ment, but when those nervous days were over, the agita- 
tors, also, found that the Texas problem, the petitions of 
the abolitionists to Congress and their pamphlets in the 
mails, had fixed the attention of the public mind, in place 
of matters which a few years before had been engrossing. 
But agitation not only went unnoticed; it was unnecessary 
as well, for the condition of the working class steadily im- 
proved. 

Despite the opposition of the eastern manufacturers, the 
western lands were made cheaper for the settler,' and rail- 
roads joining the canals or extending into the northwest 
made them day by day more easily accessible. Even distant 
and mysterious Oregon was opening to settlement. It was 
generally realized that labor had here an ahernative, and 
before the great influx of foreigners later in the century, 
employers had to offer large inducements to meet the com- 
petition of the western opportunity. For a generation 
wages were advanced more rapidly than prices." Then, 
too, thrown backward from the west, there was the influ- 

' The preemption laws became permanent in 1841. 
"Senate Documents, 52nd. Cong., 2nd. Session, Report 1394 (Report 
of Mr. Aldrich from Committee on Finance, 1893), part i, pp. 10, 14. 



420 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

ence of that fierce individualism of the pioneer, who has 
created wealth from wilderness, and who knows that the 
same economic opportunity awaits every man or family in 
the east who will take like trouble. Socialism is professedly 
a scheme to keep comfortable existence always within the 
reach of honest toil; it is plausible alone in those societies 
where there are many who seem permanently denied a share 
in property; in America with her free lands there was no 
such exclusion/ 

In surveying the political conditions of New York state 
in 1800, we took occasion to analyze the composition of the 
Federalist party." It is proper now, perhaps, to attempt a 
similar examination of the Whigs. They had assumed their 
name as resistants to " King Andrew," and, taking north 
and south together, this was, no doubt, their only bond of 
union. But in New England and the middle states their 
dislike of this executive encroachment was grounded chiefly 
on the fact that they were excluded from the executive 
offices." As old Elder Leland, of Cheshire, put it, " Strip 
a man of office and he will talk like a whig: put him into 
office and he will be a tory." * This may account for the 
professions of the party in New York, but it does not reveal 
its constituent parts. 

On no question, in the noisy days of 1840, was there 
more recrimination than as to where the old Federalists 
were to be found. The Democrats, of course, pinned the 

' It may be said the laborers bettered their condition when thej' ceased 
attempting to reconstruct society, and through their trade union at- 
tended strictly to raising their own wages. 

* See supra, chapters i and ii. 

•■' For an explanation of the Whig party largely on this basis, see 
Edgar Dawson, " The Origin of the American Whig Party," History 
Teachers' Magadne, vol. ii, pp. 160- 161. 

*John Leland to G. N. Briggs, Jan. 12, 1836, Writings of the Late 
Elder John Leland (N. Y., 1845), P- 675- 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS r 421 

black cockade of 'ninety-eight upon their enemies. But the 
great Henry Clay attempted to repel the charge that the 
Federalists had changed their name for that of Whigs, and 
instanced fellow senators who had once been followers of 
Hamilton and Adams, but who had now transferred their 
fealty to Jackson and Van Buren/ A New York con- 
gressman supported him by citations in the House of Rep- 
resentatives; - papers printed similar lists, ^ and a favorite 
campaign song rehearsed the names of fifteen Democratic 
leaders formerly members of the discredited party.* Willis 
Hall, speaking in the assembly, referred to eighteen Fed- 
eralist families in the city of New York who now were rep- 
resented in the ranks of the administration.^ Conversely, 
General Root pointed to the seven survivors of the New 
York senators who had voted for Jeffersonian electors in 
1 801 ; six of them, he said, were Whigs in 1840.*' 

However, Hamlet's mother showed but common shrewd- 
ness when she said, " The lady doth protest too much, 
methinks." The Whigs, in their diligent researches for 
names of Jackson Federalists, evidenced a too violent de- 
sire to allay suspicion. In this they were not successful. 
As we have tried to show, the old group, though dwindling, 
had largely kept together in New York, and formed the core 
of the rechristened party of the 'thirties. Once, when a 
certain politician's orthodoxy was impugned, Greeley re- 
monstrated, " Is it not monstrous that anybody should fear 

* Works, vol. viii, pp. 205-206. 

* Remarks of Mr. Christopher Morgan of N. Y. . . . March 26, 1840 
(N. Y., 1840). 

^E. g. Springfield Republican, Sept. 29, Oct. 6, 13, Nov. 10, 1838, June 
I, 1839. 
^ " When This Old Hat Was New". Log Cabin Songbook, p. 66. 
•'' Quoted in Springfield Republican, Feb. 10, 1838. 

* Quoted in New Haven Palladium, June i, 1840. 



422 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

the man . . . who is heartily supported by such Whigs as 
James Kent, David B. Ogden, PhiHp Hone, John A. King, 
&c., &c. ?" ^ Denials of Federalist origin were distasteful 
to such staunch old partisans as Colonel Stone of the Com- 
mercial Advertiser, for they were as useless as they were 
absurd.^ The great majority of the Federalists of 1812, 
who had survived, were Whigs in 1840. 

But this remnant never could have carried an election. 
Most Clintonian Republicans, like Archibald Mclntyre and 
Pierre Van Cortlandt, had remained with Seward and 
Granger, as champions of internal improvement for the 
nation and the state. Some People's Men, like Dr. Barstow, 
who was named for lieutenant governor in 1836, likewise 
stayed with those who fought the Regency. Some Demo- 
cratic Anti-Masons, like John C. Spencer and John Young, 
who was to be made governor, formed with Weed and 
others ties too strong to make it easy to rejoin their former 
party when the blessed spirit had subsided. The Demo- 
cratic leaders, who had been so long in power, had been un- 
able to minister to the ambitions of all their party workers, 
and some disgruntled politicians, like General Root, Gen- 
eral Pitcher and Major Noah, as well as Jesse Buel, an ex- 
state-printer, who was chosen as the candidate for governor 
in the hopeless campaign of 1836, came over to the oppo- 
sition out of hopelessness or spite. As men like General 
Porter and P. R. Livingston had developed economic inter- 
ests which would be served by the American System and 
internal improvement, they naturally joined the party of the 
business man. This was a kind of motive even more ob- 
vious in the case of those merchants, like Wetmore and 
Grinnell. who appreciated the useful service of the Bank of 

' N. Y. Tribune, Nov. 3, 1846. 

* H. Greeley to W. L. Stone, Jr. in the latter's " Life of William L. 
Stone," p. 98; Rough Hewer. Aug. 13, 1840. 




JAMES KENT 



ffi Charles Barmore, Publisher 
New York 



IV HO WERE THE WHIGS? 423 

the United States ; or of those bankers, Hke Tallmadge and 
the rest of the Conservatives, who became convinced that 
private credit was not effectually protected by the Demo- 
cratic party. It was but natural that the M'higs should wel- 
come these accessions as they came, and grant distinctions 
to their new adherents which would possibly draw others to 
their standard. On the electoral ticket of 1840 in New York, 
for example, six places were assigned apparently with this 
in view.^ Besides all these, of course, there were many 
other voters caught and sometimes held by argument or 
song, as the " Panic Whigs " of 1838 and the " Log-Cabin 
Whigs" of 1840. 

That the solidarity of parties was maintained is, no doubt, 
in part to be attributed to the influence of leaders. Person- 
alities like those of Seward, Weed and Greeley, are lode- 
stones to attract the uncertain. The material and social in- 
terests of the northern counties, for example, were clearly 
similar, their farmsteads rising one by one as the New Eng- 
land pioneers cut back the great south woods. The Con- 
cord coach, that labored over the rough way from Lake 
Champlain to the St. Lawrence, satisfied the needs of travel, 
while ox-drawn carts seemed adequate to haul the infre- 
quent freight. No pet bank, no state road or canal, no basic 
staples, claimed their local loyalties. Yet in the ten years 
beginning in 1832. St. Lawrence and Clinton Counties were 
steadfastly Democratic, while their intervening neighbor, 
Franklin, was as safely counted for the opposition. This 
cannot be explained unless one calls to mind that the for- 
mer counties were the homes of Silas Wright and A. C. 
Flagg, and the latter of the popular and influential Luther 
Bradish, who presided over the two houses of the legisla- 
ture, first one and then the other. However, few historians 

1 Isaac Ogden. Gideon Lee. P. B. Porter, Pierre Van Cnrtlandt, James 
Burt and P. R. Livingston. 



424 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

would argue that personal factors were the chief cause of 
the party loyaUies at large. 

A thesis has lately been advanced and supported with 
much scholarly research, that the two great parties of our 
history represent respectively two kinds of property inter- 
est, personal and real. If a student will cast up the sums 
of the assessments in the thirty-three counties regularly 
Democratic in the times of Jackson and Van Buren, and 
with due reference to the population, carefully compare his 
figures with those he has obtained from twenty- four Whig 
counties, his laborious computation will convince him that 
this thesis is not supported by the statistics.^ It should be 
said, however, that the test has not been fair, as the inter- 
pretation is intended to apply to the whole country broadly 
separated into economic sections. 

But our student, by constructing state election maps, will 
observe how constant was the western section in its loyalty 
to Whig principles. Here were farmers of New England 
stock who brought their grain and wool to the canal at 
places such as Buffalo, Lockport or Rochester, consigning 
it to the " home market." which they believed the Amer- 
ican System was developing in the east. Here, too, were 
wealthy and conservative communities like Canandaigua and 
Geneva, and other towns like Warsaw, Batavia, Angelica, 
Fredonia and Geneseo, whose citizens apparently had 

' In the realty assessments the counties contribute to no striking 
parallels with the election returns. It is found that of the 57 " up- 
state" counties, approximately half show an average assessment on 
personal estate of $12 or more per person. According to the theory 
these should be Whig counties. But investigation shows that there are 
19 of them which are Democratic, and only 10 Whig. The counties 
where personal estate is found in smallest quantity per capita are most 
of them among the staunchest Whig strongholds in the west: Chau- 
tauqua, Cattaraugus. Allegany, Broome, Erie, Genesee, Cortland, Niagara 
and Orleans. See E. Williams, New York Annual Register (N. Y., 
1830-1843). 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS? 



425 



brought with them a loyalty to the policies of the Adams 
family, and who had cherished gratitude to Clinton for 
opening their county to world commerce. It had been the 
fire of Anti-Masonrj' which had fused the western counties 
into an almost solid section, but the allegiance to Weed's 
party was retained because the young industrial communi- 
ties and the commercial farmers found Whig policy com- 
ported with their interest. 

vSeparate from the mass of the people [ran a Democratic 
address to the voters] the tories of the revolution and most of 
their descendants — the Hartford Convention men of the late 
war and most of theirs — the church and state men — the bank- 
ites and monopolists of every description — the operators in 
money who see in government nothing but a business trans- 
action, more or less valuable according to the share they get 
of the profits, and who find more virtue in a price-current than 
they can in the Declaration of Independence — in fine, all who 
stand ready booted and spurred to jump into the public saddle 
— and you have in the residue the Democratic party.^ 

One scarcely looks for justice from the enemy; yet it is in- 
teresting to inquire if property was, as they implied, un- 
equally divided between the two parties. 

"By whom was the general surrounded?" asked the 
American, when Jackson visited New York city in 1828. 
" Did the oldest and most respectable inhabitants crowd 
around him? Did the judges of the different courts, the 
leading barristers, the presidents of banks, the collector and 
others of the government flock toward him?" No, it an- 
swered; it was generally mechanics and not men from the 
better walks of life who shouted their applause." " The 
merchants w^ere generally Federalists, as were most of the 

^Albany Argus, Extra, Sept. 14, 1834. 

^ Quoted in Argus, March 3, 1828. It is well to remember that office- 
holders were not necessarily partisans of the President as yet. 



426 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

lawyers," wrote Thurlow Weed of New York city after 
1815/ 

It is a very common fact [declared a chronicler of trade, look- 
ing backward from the 'sixties] that for thirty-four years 
(since 1828) very few merchants of the first class have been 
Democrats. The mass of large and little merchants have, like 
a flock of sheep, gathered either in the Federalist, Whig, Clay, 
or Republican folds. The Democratic merchants could have 
easily been stored in a large Eighth avenue railroad car.- 

It seems, then, that there was an economic line that cor- 
responded with the borders of political opinion. The testi- 
mony is clear enough, though perhaps too slight to warrant 
a definite conclusion. But there is the far more certain 
witness of statistics. 

The circulation lists of party newspapers in New York 
city repay examination. In the 'thirties the penny press, 
having proved its power in London, made its appearance in 
the United States. ^^ The decent, ponderous, respectable 
" six-pennies " * were scandalized ; their readers, no doubt, 
shared their contempt and disgust for these " scurrilities " 
hawked about by newsboys. But the penny papers multi- 
plied in previously untilled fields, where there was room 
for anything that was cheap, and they soon spread in circu- 
lation to reach numbers far exceeding those of the class 
whose opinions followed the lines of editorial leaders from 
the pens of Colonel Stone and Colonel Webb, Mr. King and 
Mr. Bryant. If men are judged according to the company 

^Autobiography, p. 55. 

■•' W. Barrett, Old Merchants of New York, vol. i, p. 81. 

' F. Hudson. History of Journalism in the United States, pp. 416-428. 

* These papers, which had held the field practically unchallenged in 
1834, were so designated from the price of the papers over the counter. 
The subscription by the year was $10.00; see E. Williams A'. F. Annual 
Register, 1S33, p. 129. 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS f 



427 



they keep, an index no less nice as to their taste and thought 
and size of purse is found in the newspapers they buy. 
They reflect as well as form opinion. The circulation of 
the six-penny newspapers we may suppose to have been 
chiefly among the well-to-do, and thus by finding what they 
chose to read, we may infer with fairness how this sort of 
people thought and voted. 

According to statistics compiled for 1842,^ the circula- 
tion of the cheap dailies had reached 62,500. It was to 
work among this larger class that Greeley's Tribune had 
been started the year before, and had now about 10,000 
readers, representing, probably, the proportion of Whig 
strength there to be found.- The circulation of the " Wall 
Street papers " was 32,200, or less than half of that reached 
by the other group. ^ What were the politics of those jour- 
nals which were desired by this fortunate third? This is a 

^ F. Hudson, Journalism in the United States, p. 525. 

^ Ibid., and H. Greeley, Recollections, pp. 136, 137. The party .lead- 
ers had reahzed the need of propaganda, even if expensive, among the 
poorer voters, and in 1834 had proposed issuing a cheap edition of the 
Albany Evening Journal and the A''. Y. Courier and Enquirer to compete 
with the penny papers, but the plan had not been carried out (The 
Man, July 25, 26, 1834) . However, the panic offered hopeful opportun- 
ity to the Whigs ; Thurlow Weed devised the scheme of the campaign 
paper for this purpose and brought young Greeley to Albany to edit the 
Jeffersonian (Feb. 17, 1838 — Feb. 9, 1839; Greeley, Recollections, pp. 125, 
133-134, 316), and in 1840 the same editor was entrusted with the Log 
Cabin (May 27, 1840 — Nov. 20, 1841), which was made popular by 
means of music score and pictures as well as what is now called a 
" magazine page." D. D. Barnard edited a Whig campaign paper at 
Albany in that year, known as the Minerva (see Howell and Tenney. 
History of Albany, p. 367). The Democrats seeing that these papers 
were successful established the Rough Hewer (Feb. 20 — Dec. 24, 1840) 
at Albany with A. C. Flagg as editor. There were Log Cabin songbooks, 
and a Tippecanoe Text-book (published by W. O. Xiles at $10 a 
hundred). 

^ The merchants advertised almost exclusively in these ten-dollar 
papers: W. Barrett, Old Merchants, vol. i, p. 25. 



428 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

question which presents no difficulty, since that was a time 
when to preach the party doctrine was the chief reason of 
a newspaper's existence, and when its bills were often paid 
by generous appropriations from the party chest/ 

The Journal of Commerce wished to be considered neu- 
tral and emphatically commercial," and, therefore, its 7,500 
may be neglected. The Courier and Enquirer, edited by 
Colonel Webb, was at this time strongly Whig, and of the 
most conservative wing." The Express had been founded 
in 1836 by Willis Hall, who later was attorney general 
under Governor Seward, and was considered as a leader of 
the party; the paper's circulation had lately been increased 
by the merging with it of the Daily Advertiser, which had 
been edited by Theodore D wight, renowned as secretary of 
the Hartford Convention.'* The American '" belonged to 
the strictly aristocratic and financial circles of the metrop- 
olis," ^ and edited by Charles King, the admired ideal of 
Federalist gentlemen, was, of course, consistently and 
firmly Whig. Of that party, also, was the old Commercial 
Advertiser, founded to support John Jay. Born in a New 
England manse, its editor. Colonel Stone, had never fal- 
tered in the political faith he there imbibed, and distin- 

' F. Hudson, op. cit., pp. 345, 397, 411 (I. C. Bray), Memoir of lames 
Gordon Bennett (N. Y., 1855), pp. 160-163, 170-172; W. L. Mackenzie, 
The Lives and Opinions of B. F. Butler and Jesse Hoyt (Boston, 1845), 
pp. 90, 93; E. E. Hale, Jr., William H. Seward, p. 97. Oren Follett 
writes to Joseph Hoxie, Feb. 6, 1832 (Follett Correspondence, Quarterly- 
Pub, of Hist, and Phil. Soc. of Ohio, vol. v, no. 2) : "And who is it 
gives voice to the people? It is the humble man of types and paper, 
who is himself controlled by cash. Plant deep the ' root of all evil,' 
and good will spring from it.'" 

» Wm. Hallock, Life of Gerard Hallock (N. Y., 1869), pp. 63-64. 

^ F. Hudson, op. cit., pp. 344-362. 

* Ihid., pp. 517-520. 

* Ihid., p. 442. 



M^HO IV ERE THE WHIGS? 



429 



guished for the " spicy and vigilant vindication " of these 
principles, he had from time to time published party papers 
in five different towns/ (He spoke sarcastically of " uni- 
versal suffrage folks " : ''I am no Jacobin — no democrat," 
he said; "I hate the mob.") ■ These four Whig papers 
served 19,800 subscribers. The others among these jour- 
nals which satisfied New Yorkers who took less thought of 
pennies, the Evening Post and the Standard, which had 
supported Jackson and Van Buren, could muster only 2,900 
on their lists. Indeed, the latter of these two had kept its 
hold on life wholly by grace of subsidies from Washington. 
Though one may perhaps claim more significance for such 
deductions than they warrant, from these premises it seems 
fair to conclude, that of those who could afford to sub- 
scribe for the more expensive party papers, seven-eighths 
were Whig.^ 

' W. L. Stone, Jr., "' The Life and Writings of William Leete Stone," 
(published with W. L. Stone, Sr., Life and Times of Red Jacket, N. Y., 
1866), pp. 9, II, 12, 16, 18. 

^ " New York to Niagara," Buffalo Hist. Soc. Pub., vol. xiv, p. 240; 
W. L. Stone, Jr., op. cit., p. 25. 

'The preponderance of Whigs among this class of readers recalls a 
like condition with their Federalist predecessors. In 1816 there were 
seven daily papers in New York city, reaching in all their circulation 
8,890 subscribers (F. Hudson, op. cit., p. 226). In that day an annual 
subscription to a daily newspaper was an indulgence afforded only by 
the rich. Subtracting from the seven the Mercantile Advertiser, which 
professed neutrality (I. Thomas, History of Printing, vol. ii, p. 519) 
and served 2,000 patrons with extracts from other journals, we find that 
of the remaining six, four, totalling 5,290 in circulation were Federalist, 
while there were 1,700 subscribers to the Republican dailies. In 1816, 
then, 76 per cent of those sufficiently well-to-do to subscribe patronized 
the FederaHst papers, and 24 per cent the Republican. Indeed, many 
of the 825 readers of the Columbian, here credited to the Republicans, 
were probably not orthodox members of that party, as DeWitt Clinton, 
whom it supported, was very friendly to the FederaHsts. (Ibid., and 
Encyclopedia Britannica, nth edition, article "Newspapers"; National 
Cyclopedia of Am. Biog., article on B. Gardenier, owner of the Courier, 
vol. xiii, p. 433; American Almanac, Boston, 1835, p. 282; Hudson, pp. 
225, 282). 



430 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

It is interesting in passing to cite the opinion of a con- 
temporary observer, that the papers of that day which were 
pubHshed on a costly and ambitious scale tended to become 
Whig, because of the dependence on the merchants' adver- 
tisements, a source of income more reliable than subvention 
from the party : 

You may always doubt a democratic editor's sincerity when 
his advertisements begin to increase. He is then sure of mak- 
ing himself agreeable to a certain portion of the commercial 
community, and to meet soon with the proper reward of his 
new political faith. You may then expect to see him pro- 
moted in society and on 'change; and ten chances to one he 
will be able to settle with his creditors. After that he begins 
to differ on one point or another with the leading principles of 
the democratic party (for it is seldom that a man changes at 
once from a democrat to a Whig), until by degrees he re- 
nounces the whole doctrine as unworthy of a " gentleman and 
a scholar." ^ 

Fortunately there can be added other evidence as to the 
character of parties in the state eighty years ago. Our 
survey according to the counties did not contribute to sup- 
port the economic hypothesis, but perhaps it was because 
within a section like a county it is impossible to find how 
property was distributed. An examination of the cities, 
ward by ward through several years, however, will yield 
more interesting results; for here we may safely infer a 
general economic character to each small locality. 

If we turn attention to the metropolis of the state and of 
the country, we find no way of correlating the political sta- 

^ F. J. Grund. Aristocracy in America (1839), vol. ii. p. 125. Also on 
advertising see W. Barrett, Old Merchants, vol. i, p. 25. Grund says 
that there are generally considerably more Whig papers than Demo- 
cratic in a city, " which I take for the best possible proof that talent 
loves to be rewarded, and in republics, as well as monarchies, naturally 
serves those who are able to reward it," op. cit., vol. i, p. 311. 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS f 



431 



tistics of the wards throughout the dozen years from 1828 
to 1840, except by use of maps; ^ for new wards, created 
from time to time within the interval, confuse the tables for 
the purpose of comparison. Yet the character of the resi- 
dents in the various localities themselves, we are informed, 
generally remained about the same until after 1840." Con- 
sidering the wealth per capita in each ward together with its 
politics throughout the period, a striking parallel may be 
observed." The " aristocratic '' first three wards and the 
fifteenth were inhabited, in general, by the richest men — 
and the most stalwart Whigs. But lest in some wards 
wealth might have been very unequally distributed, it is 
well to seek some index as to the economic outlook of the 
individuals according to their occupations."* 

'Note on data presented in accompanying maps: The elections of 
1810 and 1816 were typical closely contested elections in the last days of 
Federalism as a party. The mayoralty elections of 1834 and 1840 were 
also closely fought, while that of 1837 is given to show the extent of 
the Anti-Tammany vote when the panic, and the Native American and 
Loco-Foco movements were factors. The authorities are as follows : 
Wards in 1810 and 1816, D. Longworth, Explanatory Map and Plan of 
New York City (N. Y., 1817) ; election returns, N. Y. Evening Post, 
April 30, 1810, and May 4, 1816. For wards 1828-1840: D. A. Burr, 
Map of the City and County of New York (N. Y., 1832), Map of City 
of New York (N. Y., 1840) ; D. T. Valentine. Manual of the Corporation 
of New York (N. Y., 1842). For election returns: E. Williams, New 
York Annual Register (N. Y., 1831-1840) ; O. L. Holley, New York 
State Register (Albany, 1843) ; N. Y. Evening Post, Nov. 10, 1828, Nov. 
12, Nov. 26, 1836; A'^. Y. Morning Courier, Nov. 11, 1828. The presi- 
dential vote corresponded with the state ticket vote. 

* W. A. Pelletreau, Early Netv York Houses, p. 78. and other au- 
thorities cited supra, pp. 22-25, 

^ The following figures are computed from the tables in D. T. Valen- 
tine's, Manual of the Corporation of New York, 1841, pp. 49, 184. See 
Table, page 432. 

■'From the Census of the State of New York, 1845, as given in O. L. 
Holley, New York State Register, 1846, page 109, excepting, of course, 
the column of percentages which are com.puted. See Table, page 432. 



432 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 
Footnote 3, page 431, continued 



Wards. 



1st . 
2nd 
3rd. 
4th. 
5th. 
6th. 
7th. 
8th. 
9th. 
loth 
nth 
1 2th 
13th 
14th 
15th 
1 6th 
17th 



Assessment 
Total Estate. 



^59,778,549 
16,856,412 
17,261,110 

10.415.555 
12,506,445 
9,997,978 
15,291,846 
13,248,758 

9.776,585 
6,857,650 

3.897.591 

12,365,350 

4.554.054 

8,762,273 

22,783,167 

17.919,139 
10,564,699 



Population. 



10,629 
6,406 
11,581 
15.770 
19,159 
17.199 
22,985 
29,093 

24,795 
29,093 
17,052 
11,678 
18,516 
20,230 
17,769 
22,275 
18,622 



Wealth 
Per Capita. 



115623 
2631 
1490 
660 
652 
580 
665 

455 
404 

235 
222 

1059 
245 
432 

1282 
804 
567 





Footnote 4, page 431, continu 


ed 






Wards. 


Colored Persons. 


2 

V 

s 
"s 

2 

5 
I 
I 

13 

13 

187 

6 

3 

3 

28 

5 


Mechanics. 


Merchants and 
Manufacturers. 


Learned Pro- 
fessions. 


Percentage of 
Aggregate of 
Merchants, Man- 
ufacturers and 
Learned Pro- 
fessions. 


1st 

2nd 

3rd 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

8th 

9th 

loth 

nth 

I2th 

13th 

14th 

15th 

i6th 

17th 


■ ■ — 
192 

275 
530 
190 

2,433 
1,073 
368 
1,841 
367 
445 
540 

669 

1,243 
712 

1,079 
397 


284 

463 

994 

1,684 

2,025 

1,281 

2,431 
3.'6i 
2,586 
3,080 

2.757 

620 

2,045 

2.737 

786 

2,968 

2,093 


2,869 
283 
624 

441 
568 
153 
751 
765 
607 

499 
141 

354 
193 
289 

635 

5^§ 
418 


354 
60 

165 
50 

137 
68 
96 

134 
162 

99 

60 

70 

42 

97 

274 

181 

121 


92 per 

50 ' 

44 

25 

27 

15 

23 

22 ' 

23 
16 

7 
36 ' 
10 ' 
12 ' 

54 

20 ' 

25 


cent. 



l^HO WERE THE WHIGS? 



433 






C'-.icrio.s 0^ 
Governor 



•^A/ST|-A\ASO;'(:C ii3 



434 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 








CLECTlOrtOF 

MAYOR 

Whig ^ 
DtMOCMTIcn 




tLtcXJOflOF 

Governor 




£.L£Cr(O«0f 



WHO WERE THE WHIGS? 



435 




436 



ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 



Depending on the figures of the nearest census where 
these data are presented, we find the previous conclusions 
perfectly supported ; the reliable Whig wards, which showed 
as well the largest wealth compared with population, are 
seen likewise to have contained the largest proportion of 
merchants, manufacturers and members of the learned pro- 
fessions/ The fifth and eighth wards, the majority of 
whose inhabitants were poor mechanics, several times pre- 
sented Whig majorities. But the residents here who actu- 
ally voted were in more comfortable circumstances than 
would at first appear ; for reference to another column will 
disclose that here a considerable proportion of these work- 
ingmen were colored, and hence without the ballot, except 
for those who were possessed of property worth two hun- 
dred and fifty dollars. And the negroes who were thus 
qualified, as we have seen, were likely from historic reasons 
to support the Whigs." It is interesting also to observe, 
that the southern section of the city which was Whig, had 
likewise been Federalist, though many merchants and bank- 
ers of the fourth ward, when the fever of 1822 made their 
old residence untenable, had moved out to the " quiet, 
dreamy Greenwich village," which became the fifteenth.^ 

Turning to the other larger cities of the state and using 
what statistics can be found, we discover, in general, a sim- 
ilar condition. Where the property per capita was relatively 
large, the ward was Whig. Albany, Brooklyn, Buffalo and 
Troy all contribute figures to establish that wherever thirty 
per cent of the population were merchants, manufacturers 

^ The defalcation of the first ward m 1830 was doubtless due to the 
fact that "Anti-Masonry was completely repudiated in the city of New 
York," Seward's Autobiography, p. 78. 

* See supra, note appended to chapter viii. 

3 T. F. De Voe. The Market Book, pp. 400-401 ; E. Bisland, " Old 
Greenwich," in Historic New York. First Series, pp. 290-291. 



H'HO WERE THE WHIGS? 



437 



and professional men, the vote showed more Whigs than 
were found in other wards. Conversely, where mechanics 
made their home, Democratic candidates generally were cer- 
tain of election/ Rochester, alone, refuses to yield support 
to these conclusions ; but the traditions of that city were so 
strongly Whig that it scarcely furnishes the evidence for 
our inquiry.' 

It seems warrantable to conclude that, after due regard 
for other factors, there remains an " economic interpreta- 
tion " of the Whig party in New York state, as it was con- 
stituted in the early 'forties of the nineteenth century. 

They had an interest in protecting property, but it was a 
kind of property which was theoretically accessible to all 
who had the industry and enterprise to gain it. Anything 
that savored of the feudal system found small support even 
from the Whigs. On the twenty-sixth of January, 1839, 
Stephen Van Rensselaer, the last of the patroons, died, 
mourned and eulogized by everyone who had known him. 
The thousands of his tenants had tacitly agreed to refrain 
from protest while he lived, but when his heirs attempted 
to collect arrearages which he had allowed to grow, they 
started a campaign of violence, which lasted for nearly a 
dozen years. They claimed that during centuries of occu- 
pation of the land as lease-holders, hard-working farmers 
had paid more than enough of quarter-sales and covenanted 
fees, and had suffered more than was right from the oner- 
ous restrictions as to wood and water, minerals and mill 
streams. They refused to pay. Many men of property 
realized that vested rights, in general, were jeopardized by 
this defiance, and Governor Seward called out the militia to 
coerce the tenantry along the Helderberg, near Albany. 

' " Farmers " in a city are truck-gardeners or persons of small fortune, 
•who should be counted with mechanics. 

' The tables and explanation for these five cities are printed in the 
appendix. 



438 ARISTOCRACY IN THE POLITICS OF NEW YORK 

But no gun was fired ; even the most conservative Whigs, 
while lamenting Loco-Foco anarchy, admitted that huge 
estates in land did not serve the public welfare, and only 
deprecated the illegal form in which the tenants made their 
protest. The governor, himself, spoke of " their petitions 
for relief from tenures oppressive, anti-republican, and de- 
grading." ^ The contemptuous resistance to undoubtedly 
legal claims spread to similar estates in other counties, not- 
ably Columbia and Delaware, and tenants, banded on the 
roads as " Injuns," reviled, belabored, and on some occa- 
sions killed the luckless constables who sought to arrest 
them. Yet the Whigs as a party did not protest, and Gree- 
ley's Tribune openly expressed its sympathy. It was a 
Whig governor who cleared the jails of anti-renters, and 
Whig legislators did not as a group oppose the measures 
by which the ancient privileges of the great landlords were 
diminished one by one. They were as willing to attract 
five thousand voters as were the Democrats. Not thus 
would Egbert Benson, Jonas Piatt, Elisha Williams or 
James Kent have acted in their period of power. But times 
had changed; the rigid castes of the eighteenth century 
with all their " rights " were gone. 

The influence of the old aristocracy as such had nearly 
disappeared, but its mantle had fallen upon capital and 
business enterprise, with their faithful pensioners of talent. 
Their party had no other steady principle than this : that 
business should go on. But in a country of such splendid 
possibilities as the United States, this was not necessarily 
mean and sordid, for it looked to a development that would, 
perhaps, bring comfort and prosperity to all, and prestige 
to the nation. Part of the legacy of Federalism to its suc- 
cessors was, of course, made up of some personal ideals — 

^Messages from the Governors, vol. iii, p. 841. 



IVHO WERE THE WHIGS? 439 

distinction of deportment, appreciation of arts and letters, 
and other qualities of culture — and this gave the party a 
prestige beyond that of its numbers. 

Of the two great parties [wrote Emerson], which at the 
moment almost share the nation between them, I should say 
that one has the best cause, and the other contains the best 
men. The philosopher, the poet, or the religious man will, of 
course, wish to cast his vote with the democrat for free trade, 
for wide suffrage, for the abolition of legal cruehies in the 
penal code, and for facilitating in every manner the access of 
the young and the poor to sources of wealth and power. But 
he can rarely accept the persons whom the so-called popular 
party proposes to him as representative of these liberalities. 
[The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aim- 
less.] On the other hand, the conservative party, composed 
of the most valuable, most moderate, able and cultivated part 
of the population, is timid, and merely defensive of property.^ 

1 Essay on Politics. 



APPENDIX 

(to Chapter XIV) 

Statistics of Party Politics and Economic Interest 

ALBANY 
Wealth 



Wards. 


Aggregate 
Assessment on 
Property, 1849.' 


Number of 
Voters, i844.'^ 


Average 
Assessment 
per Voter. 


1st 


Ho5>335 
618,740 
912,515 

1.593.114 

3,708,546 

553.500 

531.935 
358,660 

877.993 
810,865 


549 
605 

963 
956 
547 
592 
604 

593 

867 
636 


«738 


2nd ............. 


:jrd 


958 
1,656 
6,780 

935 
880 


4th 


cth 


6th 


•7th 


8th 

Qth 


605 


lOth 


1.275 





^ Computed from tables in Joel Munsell, Annals of Albany (2nd 
edition, Albany, 1870), vol. ii, pp. 361-362. 

2 Computed from following table. 



440 



APPENDIX 
Elections 1842- 1846 ^ 



441 





1842 2 


1844^^ 


1846* 


Anti-Slavery 
Vote. 


Wards. 


m 


§ 

m 

271 

275 
400 

339 
230 

195 
251 
286 
274 
247 





ji 

I 


B 
3 



1 

437 

351 
518 

504 

249 
406 
416 
462 
364 
342 


2 

I 
5 

ID 

5 
7 
I 
I 

3 
8 


o?£ 


1st 

2nd 

3rd 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

8th 

9th 

10th 


178 
244 
480 

545 
337 
305 
216 
222 

278 


201 
268 
516 
572 
299 

359 
262 
219 
520 
358 


348 

337 
447 
384 
248 

333 
342 
374 
347 
278 


3.. 

342 
468 
624 

33^ 
478 

324 
316 
625 
405 


3 
3 

II 
8 
8 

10 
4 

5 

6 

10 





Percentage of Whigs 






Wards. 


1842 


1844 


1846 


Average. 


1st 


39 per cent. 
47 

55 
62 

61 " 
46 " 

43 

63 " 

53 


37 per cent. 

44 

52 

60 

55 
52 
43 
37 
60 
56 " 


42 per cent. 

49 

38 " 

62 " 
56 " 
54 

44 
40 

63 " 
54 




2nd 

3rd 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

8th 

9th 

loth 


46 
48 
61 
57 
56 
44 
40 
62 
54 


< 



1 Elections for a somewhat later period are here considered than with 
New York and Brooklyn for want of assessment figures for the earlier 
years. 

- From O. L. Holley, New York State Register, 1843, p. 69. 

3 From O. L. Holley, New York State Register, 1845, p. 69. 

"* The only data at hand on this election was the report in the New 
York Tribune, November 4, 1846 (received from Albany Argus message 
slip) which gave only the majorities by wards. Assuming the gain in 
all wards between 1844 and 1846 to have been at the same rate as between 
1842 and 1844, the totals for 1846 were computed. From these, with the 
majorities given, the probable votes of each party were computed as well. 



442 



APPENDIX 
Occupations, etc., 1845 ^ 



Wards. 



1st . 
2nd. 
3rd . 
4th . 
5th. 
6th . 
7th . 
8th . 
9th . 
lOth 



U 



142 

63 
112 

71 
80 

33 
7 

38 

87 

155 



15 

20 



263 

313 
520 

446 
141 

260 
248 
201 
438 
379 



S^ 



I 
71 

125 

220 

44 
117 

37 
II 

97 

82 



4 
23 
30 
62 

55 
40 

7 
10 

35 
31 



b^-t-t *, c/l OJ O 

■S bfi-g ?J u ui 

C V 5 3 c3 II 

(U fc4 « -^ 4> w^ 



2 per cent. 
21 " 
23 

39 
41 
38 « 

15 

10 " 

30 

25 " 



Examination of the wards according to intensity of wealth 
shows seven wards, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th and loth, 
where the average assessment was over $900. Turning to the 
table giving the average percentage of Whigs during these 
years, we find that 5 out of 7 of these regularly show a Whig 
vote of at least 4.5% (probably the sudden drop in the Whig 
vote in the 3rd ward is to be attributed to some local circum- 
stance, for there is no other such eccentric fluctuation). In 
fact, all but the 2nd and 3rd are well above half. As a whole, 
where the property-holding average is high, the ward is Whig. 
The table setting forth the numbers engaged in four general 
groups of occupations (which may be supposed to include a 
very large proportion of the voters, as comparison with the 
total vote for 1844 will show), shows that wherever the pro- 
portion of merchants, manufacturers and professional men 
amounted to 30% or more, as in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 9th, the 
ward was Whig. But there are some Whig wards, as the ist 

1 From the Census of the State of New York, 1845, as given in O. L. 
HoUey, New York State Register. 1846. p. 107, excepting the percent- 
ages which are computed. 



APPENDIX 



443 



and the loth, where the number in this class seems insufficient 
to account for the number of Whigs. But it may be seen that 
these two wards contain the largest number and the largest 
proportion of colored persons. Most of these did not vote, 
because of the peculiar franchise restrictions. Those who 
could qualify probably voted Whig; see supra, chapter viii, 
note. Only the second ward does not contribute support to the 
" economic interpretation." 

BROOKLYN 
Wealth 



Wards. 


Aggregate 

Assessment on 

Property. 


Number 

of Voters 

1840. 

303 

768 
546 

964 
910 
480 
626 
117 
120 


Average 
Assessment 
per Voter. 


1st 


$2,720,150 
3,498,685 
4,448,000 

3,077.575 
1,525.750 
5,331.310 

2,982,935 

970,060 

1,092,051 


;J58,977 
4.554 
8,117 

3.191 

1,676 

11,107 

4.764 
8,291 
9,100 




^rd - 


4th 


cth 


6th 


7th 


8th 


9th 





1 Assessment figures are from the Tax Rolls, 'Series 1840, mss. in the 
office of the Deputy Receiver of Taxes, Borough of Brooklyn, Depart- 
ment of Finance, New York city. The number of votes is computed 
from table in O. L. Holley, N. Y. State Register, 1843, p. 82. No tax 
lists are available for years previous to 1840. 



444 



APPENDIX 
Elections 1834- 1840 





1834' 


1836* 


1838* 


1840* 


Wards. 


'6 



1 


1 

cS 

147 

282 

294 

384 

'35 

84 

128 

21 

39 


B 

V 

S 

> 


C/3 


>> 

85 
243 
137 
371 
463 
136 
228 

5^ 
38 


B 

.i 

rt 

213 
359 
410 

558 
254 
284 

327 
35 
87 


c 

0) 

3 
OQ 

s 

> 


1st 

2nd 

3'd 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

8th 

9th 


151 

227 

216 

278 

109 

88 

68 

21 

24 


78 
322 
146 
401 

329 

102 

128 

68 

16 


92 
300 
123 

353 
403 
158 
207 

63 
26 


167 

273 
342 
424 
178 

158 

250 

28 

54 


90 
409 

136 

406 

656 

196 

299 
82 

33 



Percentage of Whigs 



Wards. 



ist 

2nd . . . 
3rd . . . . 

4th 

Sth.... 
6th.... 

7th 

8th.... 
9th 



1834 



66 per cent. 
41 

59 

40 

20 " 

47 

34 

24 

60 





1836 


611 


per cent. 


48 




70 




52 




27 




39 




38 




25 




60 


1 



66 per 

44 

71 

53 
27 
54 
52 

35 
60 



1840 



70 per cent, 
46 « 

75 " 

57 

27 " 

60 

52 

30 

73 



Average. 



66 per cent. 

45 

69 " 

50 « 
25 

5° ::« 

44 "* 
28 

64 " 



1 Figures are given for vote for president in 1836 and 1840, and for 
governor in 1834 3^nd 1838. 

2 From Edwin Williams, New York Annual Register, 1836, p. 95. 

3 The only data at hand on this election was the report in the N. Y. 
Evening Post, November 4, 1836. which gave only the majorities by 
wards. Assuming the gain or loss in population to have been at the 
same rate between 1834 and 1838, the number of voters in 1836 was 
computed, and with the majorities given, the probable vote of each 
party was computed as well. 

* From Edwin WilHams, New York Annual Register, 1840, p. 222. 
5 From O. L. Holley, New York State Register, 1843, p. 82. 

* If the table were continued, this percentage would be decreased as 
this ward returned to its former Democratic majority in 1842. Sec 
O. L. Holley, New York State Register, 1843, p. 82. 



APPENDIX 



445 



It is observed that there are five wards where the average 
assessment is relatively high and four where it is low. Com- 
paring these figures with the percentage of Whigs, we find 
that in wards i, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9 the economic interpretation is 
supported, while the percentage in the 6th, and especially the 
8th, seems too low, and that in the 4th too high. Six out of 
nine might be accounted a sufficient preponderance to establish 
a presumption, but the three cases which show contrary evi- 
dence are now to be examined again in connection with other 
data. In order to check any grossly unequal distribution of 
property within the wards, let us examine the table of occupa- 
tions, etc.. which affords a personal index. 







Occupations, 


ETC.1 






Wards. 


Colored Persons. 


Farmers. 


Mechanics. 


Merchants and 
Manufacturers. 


Learned 
Professions. 


Percentage of 
Aggregate of 
Merchants, Man- 
ufacturers and 
Learned 
Professions. 


1st 

2nd 

3rd 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

8th 

9th 


60 

134 
141 

450 
203 

96 
336 

56 
397 


I 

5 
I 

4 
4 
5 

51 
56 

41 


260 

555 
307 
656 

945 

545 

922 

80 

66 


357 
203 

474 

240 

90 

359 

131 

22 

28 


39 
II 

57 
73 
7 
33 
26 

:^ 


60 per cent. 
28 

63 « 
32 
9 
42 
16 
17 
21 " 



Comparing the percentage of merchants, manufacturers and 
professional men with that of Whigs, we find a striking 
parallel. The apparent solidarity of this class was due to social 
tradition as well as community of economic interest. The ist, 
2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th, in general, show quantities where 

1 From the Census of the State of New York, 1845 (the first where 
such data is presented), as given in O. L. Holley, New York State 
Register, 1846, p. 107, excepting the column of percentages which are 
computed. 



446 



APPENDIX 



they might be expected. In the 4th, 7th and 9th, there seems 
too few of this class to account for the larger percentage of 
Whigs, but they probably bore a higher ratio to the voting 
total than they do to the total of those listed in occupations, 
because of the large number of negroes in these wards. 



BUFFALO 
Election of 1844 



Occupations, etc, 1845' 



Wards. 


Clay. 


Polk. 


Birnev. Percentage of 
WTiigs. 


"*: 

2nd 

3rd 

4th 

5th 


282 

542 
326 

325 

327 


487 
336 

602 

325 


4 i 37 per cent. 
21 ! 60 " 
8 j 67 " 

14 1 34 " 
16 j 49 













"o ^ c ■«• 






w5 


'* 5 


c 


O'^ «-o = 
bl^ - tn u 2 












rt tS =" V- C S 


Wards. 


Farmers. 


Mechani 


Merchan 
Manufa 


Learned 
Professi 


Percent 

Aggreg 

Merchan 

ufacfurc 

Lear 

Profes 


1st 


356 


798 


461 


15 


23 per cent. 


2nd 


3 


474 


263 


67 


40 


3rd 


8 


351 


148 


39 


34 


4th 


.. 


lOII 


2 


38 


4 


5th 


4 


258 


4. 


32 


23 



^ The election of 1844 is chosen because it is the only one prior to 
1845 (.the date of the occupation statistics) available for the figures by 
wards. The data for votes is taken from O. L. Holley, .V. 7. State 
Register, 1845, P- 76- 

-O. L. Holley, A'. Y. State Register, 1846, p. 103, excepting, of course, 
the percentage. 

Here where the ward statistics show more than 30 per cent were 
members of the specified class, the ward was most heavily Whig. 
Where the mechanics were most numerous, in the 4th, the ward was 
most strongly Democratic. 



APPENDIX 



447 



ROCHESTER 
Election of 1846 1 



Wards. 


Young. 


Wright. 


Percentage of 

Whigs. 


1st 


269 

235 
281 
216 
210 

305 
153 
155 
J53 


235 
172 
218 
190 
227 
279 
117 
96 
172 


S3 per cent. 

58 " 

56 " 

53 " 

47 

52 

57 

62 


■ItA 


6^'^ 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

8th 


9th 


46 " 



Occupations in 1845 - 



Wards. 



1st. 

2nd 
3rd. 
4th. 
5th. 
6th. 
7th. 
8th. 
9th. 






7 
10 

7 
52 

35 
16 

27 



205 
376 
250 

395 
140 
382 
127 
16s 
312 



184 
131 

56 
77 
17 
53 
4 
3 
42 



20 
II 

38 

36 

10 

22 

3 

7 

6 



° o >2 c 



ni *-< « 

a> J- I S S 

k. CQ P dj HI 

60 <-> i« ""^ '-' 



50 per cent. 
27 

27 
22 

15 
13 

4 
5 



1 The vote here recorded is taken from the Rochester Daily Ad- 
z'ertiser, November 5, 1846, on file in the office of the Rochester Union 
and Advertiser. The majorities, but not the total vote for 1848, are 
given in the Rochester Democrat, November 8, 1848 (Reynolds Library, 
Rochester). The Whig vote was then apparently much higher in pro- 
portion, the majorities for the first three wards being 161, 151, 162, etc. 
These figures in comparison with those of the following table show no 
connection between economic interest and politics. The traditions of 
this city, renowned for Anti-Masonry and manufacturing and anxious for 
a restoration of Whig canal policy, made its statistics hardly as useful 
as evidence, as those of other cities.. 

'' From the Census of the State of New York, 1845, as given in O. L. 
Holley, New York State Register, 1846, p. 109, excepting the column of 
percentages which are computed. 



448 



APPENDIX 

TROY 
Election of 1842 ^ 



Wards. 


Bradish. 


Bouck. 


Percentage of 
Whigs. 


1st 


234 
310 

323 
322 

57 
107 
222 
107 


241 
285 
142 
231 

53 

67 

262 

63 


49 per cent. 

69 " 




^rd 


3\^ 

4th 

5th 

6th . 

7th 


58 " 

61 " 
46 


8th 


61 



Occupations, etc., 1845 - 



Wards. 


Farmers. 


Mechanics. 


-a 2 

a « 

i2o 
c J< 

"S g 

18 
104 

47 
127 

•• 
37 


Learned 
Professions. 


Percentage of , 
Aggregate of 
Merchants, Man- 
ufacturers and 
Learned 
Professions. 


1st 


8 

I 

I 

10 

16 

I 


182 
285 
190 
251 
107 

273 
167 

37 


4 
42 
32 
22 

4 

3 

2 

18 


12 per cent. 

31 

29 

34 
74 

7 

I " 


2nd 

3'd 

4th 


cth 


3"-" 

6th 


7th 


8th 


59 





The evidence from Troy is not so striking as in some cities, 
as it seems to have been a Whig stronghold by tradition. Only 
once in the decade of the 'forties can we find more than one 

1 The election of 1842 is the only one in this period when more 
than one ward showed a Democratic majority. The figures for the 
votes are taken from the report in O. L. Holley, New York State 
Register, 1843, p. 92, excepting those for percentages which are 
computed. 

' From the Census of the State of New York, 1845, as given in O. L. 
Holley, New York State Register, 1846, p. 1 14, excepting the column of 
percentages which are computed. 



APPENDIX 



449 



ward going Democratic. However, from this election, when 
the Hnes were most tightly drawn, deductions can be made 
which support the " economic interpretation." There were 
four wards which had more than 30% per cent of its workers 
engaged in manufacturing, commerce or the learned profes- 
sions. These wards are all Whig. There are three wards 
which have less than 15% in this occupational class; the two 
Democratic wards are contained within this group. The sev- 
enth ward, which has the lowest percentage in this class, has 
also the lowest percentage of Whigs. It was the only ward 
which went Democratic more than once during the decade ; 
see tables in E. Williams, A^. Y. Anmuil Register, 1840, page 
229, and O. L. Holley, A''. Y. State Register, 1845, page 91. 



INDEX 



Abolitionism, 378-380 

Adams, John, 11 5- 116 

Adams, J. Q., deplores Federalist 
snobbery, 85 ; as politician in 
1810, IIS; leads old Federalists, 
149; on internal improvements, 
308-310; on tariff, 330-331; on 
Anti^Masonry, 341-342; on Clin- 
ton, 345 

Adirondack country, thinly popu- 
lated in 1821, 230 

Albany, politics of, 31-36; eflFect 
of canal upon, 304; effect of 
manufacturing on, 319-320; 
workingmen in, 356; Whigs in, 
369 ; election figures of, appendix 

Albany Argus, on parties, 275- 
276 ; against conventions, 291 ; 
alleges Federalists are Clin- 
tonians, 298; scorns "People's 
Men " as lobbyists, 307 ; on 
tariflf, 329; on Anti-Masonry, 
343; on Loco-Focos, 397; on 
Whigs, 425 

Albany Daily Advertiser, 361 

Albany Evening Journal, 360 

"Albany Regency," 281-286; in 
campaign of 1824, 286-299; calls 
convention in 1826, 297; on 
manufactures, 324 

Allen, Peter, 187, 190 

American System, 308-310, 358 

Ames, Fisher, 5 

Angelica, 3o6n, 424 

Anti-clericalism, 359, 388-390 

Anti-Masonry, 337-343; party 
seeks workingmen, 357 ; in 1832, 
360-363, 365; party in west 
counted by Regency, 370 

Anti-rent riots, 437-438 

"Aristides" (W. P. Van Ness), 
59 

Aristotle, on democracy, 268 

Armstrong, John, 166, 169 

Aspinwall, Gilbert, 152 



Auburn, 356, 358 
Auctioneers' monopolies, 354 

Bacon, Ezekiel, in convention of 
1831, 243, 259. 261 

Bancroft, George, quoted, 241, 249 

Bank of America, 226-228 

Bank of U. S.. 364-365. 371 

Bankers, 20-21 

Bank. Merchants. 69; opinion of 
workingmen on, 354; safety- 
fund and, 360; criticized by 
Loco-Focos, 382-383 

Banyar, G., 152 

Barnard, D. D., 402 

"Barrett, Walter" (J. A. Scoville), 
on parties. 426 

Barstow, Gamaliel, 335, 422 

Batavia, 356, 424 

Bayard, Wm.. 123. 154. 214 

Benson, Egbert, 16, 18, 100, 170, 
182. 185, 299 

Benson, Egbert. Jr., 134 

Benton, T. H., 397 

Biddle, Nicholas, 371 

Binghamton, 360 

Bleecker, H., 34, 182, i88n 

Bleeckers, 123 

Bogardus, Robert, 17 

Bogert, C. I., 108 

Bradbury, J., quoted, 230 

Bradish, Luther. 378 

Brasher, Philip, 22, 124, 157, 214 

Brooklyn, election figures of. Ap- 
pendix 

Broome. John, 164 

Broome County, 157, 363 

Bryant. W. C, 395, 426 

Bucktail Bards. 215-218 

Buffalo, politics in, 51 ; effect of 
canal upon, 229, 303 ; working- 
men in, 356; Whigs in, 369, 
424. 446 

Bunner. R., 2i8n 

Burr, Aaron, 12, 57-69 

451 



452 



INDEX 



Burt, James, 62, 42311 
Butler, B. F.. member of " Re- 
gency," 55, 282; on Webster, 411 
Butler, H. N., 334n 
Byrdsall, F., 382, 385, 397 

Cady, D, 178 

Canals, 148-159. 302-306, 334-237, 
360, 403-408 

Canandaigua, politics in, 51 ; 
workingmen in, 356; a Whig 
center, 424 

Catholic churches, 372 

Chaumont, Le Ray de, 53, 3o6n 

Cheeseborough, Robert, 19 

Cheetham, James, 59, 80 

Chenango County, 157, 3^3 

Child labor, 352 

Clark, J. C, 399, 400 

Clarkson, D. M., 124 

Clarkson, Matthew, 19, 20, 168, 
182, 214, 237 

Clarksons, 131. I37, I57 

Clay, Henry, and " Regency," 
283; in campaign of 1824, 286, 
288, 299, 300; on American Sys- 
tem, 330-333 ; some followers 
join workingmen, 358; in cam- 
paign of 1832, 361 ; in cam- 
paign of 1840, 411, 421 

Clinton, De Witt, did not invent 
spoils system, 6n, no; on Coun- 
cil of Appointment, 58; in carn- 
paign of 1804, 62; interest in 
Manhattan Co., 69; favorite 
with Irish. 76. 233; seeks U. S. 
aid for canal, 153; in campaign 
of 1812, 164-172; as mayor, 174, 
183; suspected by some Feder- 
alists, 191 ; elected governor, 194- 
196; policy of, 197-198; sup- 
ported by most Federahsts, 198- 
200; lack of affability, 200-201; 
his " family." 201 : scientific 
and literary interests, 202-203; 
and Verplanck. 203-205; atti- 
tude toward Federalists, 206, 
220; and N. Y. American, 209, 
213; and Bucktail Bards, 214- 
218; G. Granger's defense of, 
219-220; and "High-minded 
Federalists," 221-223; opposes 
constitutional convention in 1818, 
232 ; seeks to limit constitutional 
reform, 233; attempt to post- 



pone convention, 234; popular 
in western counties. 252 ; de- 
fends custom of addressing 
legislature, 271 ; not a candi- 
date in 1822, 28on; removed 
from office of canal commis- 
sioner, 292; nominated for gov- 
ernor in 1824, 293-294; effect on 
People's Party, 295-296; elected, 
298; celebrates opening of canal, 
302; thanked by merchants, 
305 ; advised building more 
canals, 306; followers for 
Adams, 309, 315.. 3i6; on na- 
tional internal improvements, 
311-312; re-elected governor, 
313; on presidential candidates, 
314-317; death and character, 

343-347- 

Clinton County, 349, 428 

Clinton family. 64, 65 

Clinton. George. 4. 12. 100. 175 

Clintonians, disband as party, 275 

Cock, Wm., 108 

Colden, C. D., 14, 123, 154, i99> 
218, 237, 299 

Coleman, Wm.. 79, 161, 191 

Coles, I. v., 183 

Coles, John B., 18, 181, 182 

Columbia College, 29-30, 162-165 

Columbia County, 39-46, 237, 266 

"Goodies," 203-205. 211 

" Coody. Abimelech" (see Ver- 
planck. G. C.) 

Cooper, C. D., 201 

Cooper, J. F., 139 

Cooper, Wm., I36-I37, 138. 140-141 

Conservative Democrats, 398-402 

Constitution of 1821, movement 
for, 230-239 ; delegates to con- 
vention, 239-244; debates in 
convention, 244-266 ; accepted, 
267 

Council of Appointment. 5n, 230- 
232, 246 

Council of Revision, 235, 236; 
244-245 

Crolius. Clarkson. 322 

Croswell, Edwin, 282 

Croswell, Harry, 44 

Danton. 269 
Dash. J. B., 19 
Delafield, John, 124, 128 
Delancey, John, 108, 128 



INDEX 



453 



Delaware Coanty, 47 

Democratic leaders (see "Albany 
■Regency ") 

De Peyster, F., 21, 124, 157 

De Tocqueville, A., 416 

De Witt, Simeon, i75n 

Dietz, J. J., 34 

Duane, James, 122, 12^ 

Duer, John, i88n. 2i8n; in con- 
vention of 1821, 253n, 263 

Duer, W. A., president of Colum- 
bia College, 30 ; on navy in War 
of 1812, 181 ; on secession, 185 ; 
opposes Clinton, 207-208, 214; 
and N. Y. American, 212; sup- 
ports King for Senator, 221 ; be- 
comes judge, 226 

Duers, 39, 122 

Dunscombe, W., 163 

Dutch aristocracy, 31-36 

Dwight, Theodore. 188, 428 

Dwight, Timothy. 160 

Education, interest of working- 
men in, 353, 355 

Edwards, Ogden, 232, 240, 263 

Election of 1800, 2-4; of 1804, 57- 
69; of 1807, 74-81; of 1809, 109; 
of 1810, 112-116; of 1812, 164- 
172: of 1813, 172-173. 175-176; 
of 1815, 186-187; of 1816, 187- 
192; of 1817, 196; of 1820, 233- 
234; of 1822, 279-280; of 1824, 
286-299; of 1826, 312-314; of 
1828, 347-351 ; of 1830, 360-361 ; 
of 1832, 361-365; of 1834, 371; 
of 1836 and 1837, in New York 
city, 376, 402; of 1838, 402-405; 
of 1840, chap, xiv 

" Electoral Bill," 2^-290, 293, 296 

Elmendorf, L., 47, 155 

Embargo, 99, 100, 102 
• Emerson, R. W., on parties, 439 

Emmett, T. A., 76, 78, 115 

Emott, James, 46-47, 123, 155, 210 

Episcopal church, 25-29, 137, 138 

Erie R. R., 327, 405 

Evans, G. H., 356, 359. 3^6, 388 

" Federalists, High-minded," 214, 

222 
Fellows, Henry, 187 
Fillmore, Millard, 400 
Fine, John, 129 
Fish, Nicholas, a bank-president. 



20; alderman, 22; candidate for 
lieutenant governor in 1810, 
112; land-holder, 123, 157; in 
Coody's pamphlet. 160 ; candidate 
for lieutenant governor in 181 1, 
164; opposed to War of 1812, 
170; candidate for Congress, 
181 ; defeated for delegate to 
convention of 1821, 237 

Fish, Preserved, 383 

Flagg, Azariah C, member of 
"Regency." 281 ; loyalty to " Re- 
gency." 283 ; leads Democrats 
against Electoral Bill. 289; on 
tariff, 22>~', and Anti-Masonry, 
341 ; opposes internal improve- 
ment, 403-407 

Folger, Reuben. 40 

Follett, Oran, 361 

Ford, David. 129 

Ford, Nathan, 128, 129 

Fredonia, 424 

"Friends of Equal Rights" (see 
" Loco-Focos ") 

Fuller. P. C, 379 

Furman, Gabriel, 21 

Gardenier, B., 47, loi, 161, 210. 
214. 226 

Gates, S. M., 379 

Geneseo, 424 

Genet, " Citizen," 81, 105 

Geneva, 27, 51, 356, 390, 391, 429 

Gold, T. R., SI, 103, 153, 322 

Gouge, W. M., 383 

Gracie, Archibald, 20. 182 

Granger, Francis, 220; on state 
road, 335-336; and Anti- 
Masonry, 341-344; defeated for 
governor, 361 ; and Chenango 
Canal, 363 

Granger, Gideon, 219, 220 

Greeley, Horace, 376, 377, 421, 423, 
427 

Greene, 360 

Greenwich Village, 436 

Grinnell, M. H., 364, 4^22 

Grosvenor, T. P., 45n, 46 

Grund, F. J., 430 

Hale, W. H.. 396 
Hall, Willis. 403, 421, 4^ 
Hamilton, Alexander, opposes 
Jefferson's election in New 
York, 2-3 ; on democracy, 6 ; 



454 



INDEX 



importance in party, 8; on Burr, 
60-61, 68; on political clubs, 87- 
88; a land-holder, 123 

Hamilton, Alexander, Jr., 210, 214 

Hamilton, J. A., 210, 214 

Hamilton, Thomas, 357 

Hammond, J. D., on constitution 
of 1821, 267; on parties, 276; on 
campaign of 1826, 313; on state 
road contest, ^37 > on Clinton, 

345 

Hammond, Judah, 399, 400 

Harison, Richard, importance and 
character. 12-13; as a lawyer, 
29; a Tory, 108; familiar with 
New York city charter, 1 1 1 ; 
comptroller of Trinity Parish, 
137; investments in canals, 151; 
petition for St. Lawrence- 
Champlain canal, 157; for peace 
in 1812, 168, 170 

Harison, Richard, Jr., 132, 137 

Harrisburg Convention, 331-332 

Harrison, W. H.. 413-414 

Hartford (N. Y.), 356 

Hasbrouck, L., 129 

Hatfield. Richard, 214 

Hazeltine, Abner, 379 

Henderson, Wm., 18, 134 

Herkimer. 297 

Hertell, Thomas, 389 

Hobart, Bishop, 1.38 

Hodgson, Adam. 230 

Hoffman. Josiali O., importance 
and character, 13-14; candidate 
for assembly, 18; a Tory. 108; a 
land-holder, 124, 128; works for 
Clinton in 1812, 167-168; for 
peace in 1812. 178; supports 
Clinton in 181 7, 198; abandons 
Clinton in 1819, 206; co-opera- 
tion with Tammany Society, 214 

Hoffman, Michael, member of 
" Regency," 282, 283 ; on tariff. 
3.32; on campaign of 1828. 351; 
carries through " stop-and-tax 
law." 406-407 

Hoffman. Ogden. 29, 364 

Hoffman, 122 

Hopkins, Roswell, 53 

Hopkins, S. M., 22, 90, 93, i82n 

Hone, 20 

Hone, Philip, invests in Wash- 
ington Hall, 96; heads mer- 
chants' canal committee, 305; on 



manufactures, 322 ; and name of 
Whig party, 367 ; bewails Demo- 
cratic vulgarity, 369, 387; in 
campaigning of 1840, 409; an 
orthodox Whig. 422 

Hosack, David, 202n, 218 

Hoxie, Joseph, 361-362, 413 

Hudson, 39-46, 55 

Huntington, Henry, 274, 279-280 

Imprisonment for debt, 353-354, 

357 
Independent Treasury bill, 398 
Infidelity. 359. 388-390 
Inman, Wm., 152 
Irish, 75-81, 115, 233, 371-376 
Ithaca, 356 

Jackson, Andrew, and N. Y. poli- 
tics, 286, 288, 299, 314-318, 344, 

347 

Jay, John, refuses to interfere in 
election of 1801. 2-4; on Council 
of Appointment, 5n. importance 
in party. 9; on campaign of 1807, 
82; and spoils system, no; on 
Napoleon, 182; on War of 1812, 
184; and Clinton, 199; a framer 
of constitution of 1777, 229 

Jay, P. A., addresses Washington 
Benevolent Society, 93. 97, 98; 
supports King for governor in 
1816, i88n ; appointed recorder 
of New York city. 206; in con- 
vention of 1821. 243, 247; on 
negro suffrage, 269n ; a " Peo- 
ple's Man," 290 

Jefferson County, 52, 53 

Jeffersonian principles, i, 2, 229, 
268, 278. 308, 404 

Johnson, R. M., .393-394, 397 

Jones, Elbert. 168 

Jones, Samuel, 12, 29, 181, 237 

Kent, James, on beneficence of 
property-holders. 34; on the 
trustworthiness of freeholders, 
143 ; supports King for gover- 
nor in 1816, 188; friendship for 
Clinton, 198; in convention of 
1821, 237, 241. 245, 247, 251, 253- 
-.55, 257; criticized in conven- 
tion, 264-265 ; a " People's Man," 
299; in 1832, 363; in campaign 
of 1840, 409; an orthodox Whig, 
422 



INDEX 



455 



Kent, Moss, 134, i82n 

King, Charles, president o£ 
Columbia College, 30; opposes 
War of 1812, 180; becomes cap- 
tain, 183 ; commissioner to in- 
vestigate Dartmoor prison, 190; 
founds iV. F. American, 209; 
as a Whig editor, 426, 428 

King, Cyrus, 149 

King, John A., in War of 1812, 
183; supports his father for 
Senator, 207-209; opposes Clin- 
ton, 221-222; elected to legisla- 
ture by " Bucktails," 226; at- 
tempt to have executive journal 
published, 272; orthodox Whig, 
422 

King, J. G., 183 

King, Rufus, importance and char- 
acter, 9; solicited to be a can- 
didate for governor in 1804, 61- 
62 ; reluctant to co-operate virith 
Lewis, 70; named for governor 
in 1807, 75; assailed by Irish, 
78; candidate for President, 
loi ; on land taxation, 126-127; 
canal investments, 152; on Clin- 
ton's candidacy for President, 
168-171 ; chosen Senator, 173- 
174; on Napoleon, 182; on War 
of 1812. 183, 184; named for 
governor in 1816, 188-192; re- 
turned to Senate, 207-208, 211, 
220-221; in convention of 1821, 
240, 263; opposes Solomon Van 
Rensselaer's appointment, 279n 

Kingsbury, 39, 356 

Knickerbocker, H., S7- 102 

Knower, Benjamin, 36, 282n, 322, 
332 

Knox, Henry, 124 

Labor (see " Workingmen ") 
Lansing. J. G., i88n 
Lansing, John, 62 
Lansingburgh, 38, 356 
Lawrence, C. W., 368, 369, 385 
Lawrence, John, 17, 29, 152 
Lawrence, R. M., 157 
Lawyers, 11-17 
Lee. Gideon, 383, 423n 
Lefferts, John, 274 
Leggett, Wm., 395 
Leland, John, 420 
Le Roy, 20, 134, 137, 157, 183 



Le Roy. Bayard & Co., 124, 152, 157 

Lewis, Morgan, 63, 64, 69, 106 

Lewis County, 53 

Livingston, P. R., 155 ; character 
of. 240; in convention of 1821, 
245, 247, 248, 265; leaves Demo- 
cratic party, ss^ ; speaks before 
National Republicans, 361 ; as a 
Whig, 422, 423n 

Livingston, R. L., 102, 145 

Livingston, R. R., 229 

Livingstons, 47, 62, 63, 64, 65, 
69. 71 

Locke. John, 249-250 

Lockport. 424 

"Loco-Foco" party, 381-402 

Low, Cornelius, 137 

Low, Nicholas, 21, 51, 124, 134, 
156, 183 

■' Low Salary Men," 200 

Lynch, D., 153 

McCormick, D.. 157 

McEvers, Charles, 21. 157 

Mclntyre, A., i75n, 422 

Madison. James, 300-301 

Manufacturing, 302 et seq., 318-326 

Marcy, W. L,, supports Rufus 
King for U. S. Senator, 221 ; 
member of " Regency," 281 ; de- 
fends "spoils system," 284; on 
tariff, 331; made governor, 364; 
succeeds himself in 1834. 371 ; 
on abolitionism, s?^; and six 
million-dollar-loan, 387; de- 
feated for governor in 1838, 
402-405 

Marryat, Frederick, 417-418 

■■ Martling Men," 71 

Mason, J. M., 162, 163, 164, 168, 182 
214, 226 

Maxwell, Hugh, 163, 203, 210, 
214, 226 

Mechanics' lien law, 352, 351 

Alerchants, 18-20, 22, 426 

Mesier, Peter, 22 

Military and Civic Hotel, 381, 384 

Militia system, 354, 357 

Miller, D. C, :^63 

Miller. M. S,, 51, loi, i82n, 222 

Ming. Alexander, 397 

Minturn, 20 

Mitchill, S. L.. 218 

Moore, Eli, 386 

Morgan, Christopher, 421 



INDEX 



4S6 



Morgan. Wm., 337-33^ 

Morris, Gouverneur, on demo- 
cracy, 6 ; importance and char- 
acter of, ii; on Burr, 60; on 
embargo, 104; a landholder, 
124; on land taxation, 125-126; 
on universal suffrage, 143; early 
agitation for canal, 150. 153, 
210; on secession in 1812, 167, 
185; opposed to War of 1812, 
168, 177, 184, 185; on Napoleon. 
182 ; on King's candidacy in 1816, 
89; indifference to parties, 192; 
a framer of constitution of 
1777, 229 

Morris, Jacob, 135, 138, 188 

Morris, Thomas, 157 

Morse, S. F. B., 373-374 

Morss, John, 271-272 

Munro, P. J., 73, 265 

Murray, John li., 20 

National Advocate, 234 

National Republicans, 360, 361 

Nativism, 75-8i, 115. 37'i-376 

Negro suffrage, 269-27on 

Newburgh, 48 

Newspapers. 426-429 

New York American, founded, 
209-213; advocates general con- 
stitutional convention in 1820, 
234; moderation on the suffrage, 
:^3 ; favors Adams in 1824, 286 ; 
on tariff, 323 ; on strikes, 391 ; 
on Democrats, 425 

New York city, politics of, chap, 
ii ; remarkable growth, 230; ef- 
fect of canal upon, 304-305 ; 
classes and vote in, chap, xiv 

New York Commercial Advertiser, 

391 
New York Courier and Enquirer, 

364, 367, 384, 391 
New York Evening Post, 383, 

391. 394-395 
Niagara County, 372 
Nicholas, John, 73 
Niles, Wm. O., 323 
Noah. M. M., 364, 422 
North. Wm.. 237 
Norwich, 360 

Oakley, T. J., a Poughkeepsie 
Federalist, 47; on the Erie 
Canal, 155; importance in Con- 



gress, i82n ; supports King for 
governor in 1816, 188; supports 
Clinton in 1817, 198; opposes 
King for Senator, 208; appointed 
attorney-general, 211; assailed 
by N. Y. American, 211-212; 
supports Clintonian candidate 
for speaker in 1820. 221 

Ogden, David A., 17, 130. 137 

Ogden, David B.. 17, 29, 168, 170, 
177, 181, 189, 299. 402. 409. 422 

Ogden. Gouverneur. 131 

Ogden. Isaac. 290, 423n 

Ogden Samuel, 128 

Ogle, Charles, 412 

Oneida County, 50, 52, 230, 318, 
320 

Otis. H. G., 100. 171 

Owen, R. D., 356. 359, 388 

Oxford, 360 

Palmyra. 356 

Parish, George, 132-133. ^^7 

Parties, philosophy of, 275-278, 
285, 300-301. 392-393 

Patroon. the (see Van Rensselaer, 
Stephen) 

Peck. Jedediah, 135 

Pendleton. Nathaniel. 17, m. I'-t 

People's Party, 273. 288, 291, 307- 
308 

Pierpont, H. B., 157 

Pitcher. Nathaniel. 274. 313. 422 

Piatt. Jonas, importance in party, 
51; on embargo. 103; campaign 
for governor in 1810. 112-116; 
seeks to continue " fagot vot- 
ing," 147; on Erie Canal. 174; 
supports Qinton in 1817, 196, 
198; in convention of 1821, 242, 
244, 264-265; opinions recalled, 
274; a " People's Man," 299; on 
manufactures, 322 

Piatt, Zephaniah. 134 

Porter, P. B., 62, 196, 402, 422, 
423n 

Poughkeepsie, 46-47, 319 

Prison labor, 354 

Quincy, Josiah. 94 

Radcliffe, Jacob, 11 1, 174. 203, 256 
Radcliffe. Peter, 170, 174, 203 
Railroads, 306 
Ray, Cornelius, 19, 20, 161 



INDEX 



457 



Ray, Robert, iSt, 

Raymond, Benjamin, 129 

Remsen, Henry, 21, 156, 157 

Renwick, James, 202n 

Rhinebeck, 56 

Riggs, C. S., i/On 

Robinson, Beverly, 29, 30 

Rochester, 51 ; effect of canal 
upon, 229, 303 ; manufactures in, 
320; labor movement in, 354, 
356; Irish in, 372; a Whig cen- 
ter, 424, 437, 447 

Rochester, Wm. B., 312-313 

Roosevelt, C, 395 

Root, Erastus, affability of, 200; 
opposes Clinton, 214; endorses 
Rufus King, 221 ; desires con- 
stitutional reform, 233 ; charac- 
terization of, 240; in convention 
of 1821, 245, 247, 260-261, 262, 
265 ; candidate for lieutenant 
governor in 1822, 279; elected, 
280; opposes canal policy, 307; 
on state road, 335 ; suggested by 
National Republicans for gov- 
ernor, 361 ; in campaign of 1840, 
421 ; as a Whig, 422 

Ross, Dr., 260 

Ross, Wm., 181 

Rough Hewers' Associations, 411 

" Royal Party," 225 

Ruggles, Samuel B., 403-404 

Safety- fund law, 360 

St. Lawrence County, 52, 423 

Salem, 39 

Salina, 356 

Sanford, Nathan, 251 

Saratoga, 356 

Savage, John, 390-391 

Schermerhorn, C., 183 

Schuyler, Philip, 3, 31, ;^2, 124, 
150-151 

Scriba, F., 152 

Sebring, Isaac, 20, 89, 95 

Sedgwick, T., i8on 

Selden, Dudley, 364 

Seventh Ward Bank, 382 

Seward, Wm. H., and Anti- 
Masonry, 342; and Working- 
men, 358; nominated for gover- 
nor in 1834, 371 ; and nativism, 
376-378; and abolitionism, 378- 
380; elected governor in 1838, 
402-405 ; studied simplicity of. 



414; attractive personality of, 
423 ; and anti-rent riots, 437-438 

Sharpe, Peter, 260, 322 

Shepherd, Z. R., 190, 222 

Sherred, 20 

" Siamese-Twin ticket," 362, 370 

Sibley, Mark C, 379 

Skidmore, Thomas, 356, 359 

Skinner, Roger, I94n 

Slidell, John, 22 

Smith, Gerrit, writes Peoples' 
Party address, 294 

Socialism, fails to attract Ameri- 
cans, 419-420 

Southwick, Solomon, 343, 349 

Spencer, Ambrose, as Clintonian 
leader, 67; breaks with Clinton, 
166, 169, 174; reconciled with 
Clinton. 195,196; and "Coodies," 
203; assailed by N. Y. Ameri- 
can, 213; assailed by "Buck- 
tail Bards,'' 216; in convention 
of 1821, 237, 242, 244, 247, 251, 
252, 253, 256, 257; loses judge- 
ship, 264-265; a "People's 
Man," 299; on manufactures, 
322 ; on Clinton, 345 ; on U. S. 
Bank, 365 

Spencer, John C, attempts to de- 
lay constitutional reform, 236; 
on manufactures, 324; supports 
Clay in 1832, 361 ; senatorial 
aspirations of, 400; as a Whig, 
422 

State road, 334-337 

'Stevens, John, advises railroad 
building, 306 

Stevens, Samuel, 359 

Stevenson. lohn B., 162 

Stillwell, S.' B., 359 

Stone, Wm. L., supports Clinton, 
199; ridicules Morss's anti- 
title bill, 272; favors Adams in 
1824, 286; as a Whig, 426, 428- 
429 

Strikes, 300-392 

Strong, Selah, 18 

Suffrage, landlords and, 139-148; 
agitation for extending, 233, 
237-23g; in convention of 1821, 
248-264 ; becomes universal 
among men, 273-274 

Sullivan, Wm., 98, 170 

Swartwout, John, 70 

" Swiss Federalists," 207 



458 



INDEX 



Syracuse, 52 

Talcott, Samuel A., 282 

Tallmadge, N. P., 399-402, 403 

Tammany Society, becomes Jeffer- 
sonian, 88, 89, 91 ; moves from 
Martling's Tavern to Tammany 
Hall, 95 ; tardily supports canal 
project, 155-156; opposes Clin- 
ton in 1817, 198, 199; supports 
King for Senator, 207; joined 
by '* high-minded Federalists," 
214; on constitutional conven- 
tion of 1821, 233-234; and na- 
turalized citizens, 374; and 
Loco-Focos, 383-390 

Tariff, 3^5-334- 358 

Tayler, John, 106, 166, 169, 175 

Ten Broeck, A., 152 

Ten Broeck. Dirck, 34 

" Ten-hour day," 352 

Thompson, Smith, 342, 347-351 

Throop, Enos T., 348 

Tibbits, Elisha, 21, 157 

Tibbits, George. 38, 155, 185. 222. 

" Tickler. Toby," 66 

Tippecanoe Clubs, 41 1 

Tocqueville, A. de, 416 

Tompkins. Daniel D.. nominated 
for governor in 1807, 74. 82 ; re- 
nominated in 1810. 112; pro- 
rogues legislature in 1812, 166; 
and Van Rensselaer. 172, 173. 
176; as war governor. 179, 190. 
224; renominated in 1816, 189; 
nominated for Vice President, 
191, 196; attractive manners of, 
200, 201 ; president of constitu- 
tional convention of 1821, 239; 
in convention, 245, 260; opposes 
Solomon Van Rensselaer's ap- 
pointment, 278-279 

Tontine Coffee House, 21 

Tories, 12, 106-109 

Townsend, John, 19 

Trenton Falls, 56 

Troup, Robert, on spoils system, 
6; importance and character, 14- 
15; as an Episcopal, 27, I36n, 
137; on Burr, 60; on politics in 
1806, 70, y2, 73; on American 
ticket, 80; as land-agent, 103, 
134; on Tories, 107-108; on 
politics, in 1810, 11 1; canal in- 



vestments of, 151 ; on Erie 
Canal, 154; in War of 1812, 183; 
on manufactures, 2>~~ 
Troy, politics in, 36-38, 56: work- 
ingmen in, 356; as a Whig 
center, 448 

Ulshoeffer, Michael, 236 

Ulster County, 47 

Utica, politics of 50-51, 55-56; 
scene of Anti-Regency conven- 
tions, 297, 312, 392; working- 
men in, 356 

Van Buren, Martin, as political 
lieutenant of Clinton, 145 ; wel- 
comes " High-minded Federal- 
ists," 213; supports Rufus King 
for Senator, 221 ; in convention 
of 1 82 1, 240-241, 246, 247, 258, 
262, 263. 266; opposes Solomon 
Van Rensselaer's appointment. 
278-279; leader of the "Re- 
gency," 281 ; opposes internal im- 
provement, 310-31 1 ; in campaign 
of 1826, 313; joins with Clinton 
in supporting Jackson, 314-318; 
on tariff, 2,2,2, 233>'- as a politi- 
cian, 345 ; in campaign of 1828, 
348-351 ; carries through safety- 
fund law, 360; and Catholics, 
374 ; and Loco-Focos, 393-394, 
397-399: his alleged luxurious- 
ness, 412-413 

Van Cortlandt, Pierre, i75n, 201, 
422, 423n 

Van der Heyden, ''7, 38 

Van Home, G., 124, 157 

Van Ness, W. P., 59, 70 

Van Ness, W. W., importance 
and character, 43-44; supports 
Lewis, 71, 72\ appointed to 
supreme court, 81 ; in campaign 
of 1808, 102; continues as judge, 
187; in Bank of America scan- 
dal, 189, 226-228; supports Clin- 
ton, in 1817, 196, 198; and 
" Bucktail Bards," 216; on 
"High-minded Federalists," 225; 
in convention of 1821, 242, 247, 
252, 255, 258, 259, 261, 262; loses 
judgeship, 264-265; on manu- 
factures, 322 

Van Rensselaer, 50 

Van Rensselaer. H., 132 

Van Rensselaer, J. R., importance 



INDEX 



459 



and character, 44-45 ; as specu- 
lator and lobbyist, 46, 154; in 
campaign of 1808, 102; on 
Napoleon, 182 ; as general, 183 ; 
on secession, 185; supports King 
for governor in 1816, 188; sup- 
ports Clinton in 1817, 196, 198; 
in Bank of America scandal. 
226-228; in convention of 1821, 
242, 247, 250, 255, 258, 259; a 
" People's Man," 299; on manu- 
factures, 302 

Van Rensselaer, Jeremiah, 4n 

Van Rensselaer, K. K., 102 

Van Rensselaer, Solomon, affair 
with John Tayler, 104, 107 ; dur- 
ing War of 1812, 175, 176; con- 
troversy over appointment as 
post-master of Albany. 278-279 

Van Rensselaer, Stephen, candi- 
date for governor in 1801, 4; 
influence of, 31 ; character of, 32 ; 
as land-holder, 124, 141, 142; 
on canals, 155 ; in War of 1812, 
172, 173; as candidate for gov- 
ernor in 1813, 175-176; on Napo- 
leon, 182; supports King for 
governor, 188-189; supports 
Clinton, 199 ; elected to conven- 
tion _ of 1831, 237 ; favors con- 
vention, 238; in convention, 242, 
247, 259 ; a " People's Man," 
299; founds Rensselaer School, 
323 ; on Masonry, 361 

Van Schoonhoven. J., 34, 152 

Van Vechten, Abraham, import- 
ance and character of, 33-34: on 
politics in 1807, 72: on coalition 
with Clintonians in 1808, 100; 
and spoils system, no; on New 
York mayoralty, in; on Erie 
Canal, 154, 155 ; on free speech, 
i8on; on Napoleon, 182; on 
secession, 185 ; elected to con- 
stitutional convention of 1821, 
237; in convention, 242, 247, 255. 
259, 261, 265; a " People's Man/' 
299 

Van Wyck, P. C, 201, 214 

Van Zandt, Wyant, 18 

Varick, Richard, 15, 21, 89, in, 
163, 168, 181 

Verplanck, Gulian, 21 

Verplanck, Gulian C, founds 
Washington Benevolent Society, 



89, 94; opposes Clinton in i8n, 
160-165; literary controversy 
with Clinton, 203-205 ; associated 
with iV. y. American, 209, 210; 
author of Bucktail Bards, 214- 
218; elected to legislature, 226; 
leaves Democratic party, 364; 
nominated for mayor of New 
York city, 368; declines nom- 
ination for governorship, 371 

Verplanck, Johnston, 209 

Vining, W. H., 131 

Walker, Benjamin, 50 

Warsaw, 424 

Washington Benevolent Society, 
89-99 

Washington County, 39 

Watts, John, 108 

Wayne County, Irish in, 372 

Webb, J. W., leaves Democratic 
party. 364; suggests name of 
Whig party, 367; as a Whig, 
426, 428 

Webster, Daniel, 95 ; on tariff, 
329; on U. S. Bank, 365; in 
campaign of 1840, 409-410, 411, 
414-415 

Webster, Noah, 86 

Weed, Thurlow, contrives election 
of Adams electors, 300; on 
Clinton's adherence to Jackson, 
316; and Anti-Masonry, 342- 
343; as a politician. 345, 360- 
362, 363-367; on nativism, 376- 
378; in campaign of 1840, 411; 
attractive personality of, 423; 
on Federalists, 425-426 

Wells, John, 17, 29, 190, 237 

Western counties, 301 

Wetmore, R. C, 364, 422 

Wheaton, Henry, attempts to pro- 
tect judges in 1821, 265; Anti- 
Clinton " People's Man," 290 

Wheeler, Melanchthon, 262-263 

Whig party, 367-368, chap, xiv 

Whitestown, 50, 51 

Williams, Elisha, importance and 
character of, 41-43, 55 ; ambi- 
tious for wealth, 46; in cam- 
paign of 1808, 102; deeds prop- 
erty to make voters, 146; sup- 
ports canal measure. 155; sup- 
ports Clinton in 1817, I9i5, 198; 
assailed by A^^. Y. American, 212; 



460 



INDEX 



opposes King for Senator, 221 ; 
in Bank of America scandal, 
226-228; in convention of 182 1, 
242, 247, 248, 250, 252, 255, 256, 
259, 261, 262, 266; a "People's 
Man," 299 

Williams, John, 39 

Williams, Robert, iion, 265n 

Williams, William, 55 

Wirt, Wm.. 362, 363 

Wolcott, Oliver, 21, 160, 163 

Woman labor, 352 

Wood, John, 58 

Woodworth, John, on party strife, 
56; loses judgeship, 264-265 

Woolsey, W. W., 21 

Workingmen, grovi^ in importance 
after 1812, 229; political activity 
of, 352-359; and Loco-Focos, 
385-387 

Wright, Frances, 356, 539, 388, 
415. 418 

Wright, Silas, Jr., opposes Am- 
brose Spencer's candidacy for 
U. S. Senator, 273; drafts man- 
hood suffrage bill, 274; member 
of " Regency," 281 ; loyalty to 



the " Regency," 283 ; as political 
manager, 284-285 ; against the 
Electoral Bill, 2^291 ; opposes 
internal improvement, 307 ; on 
tarifif, 2,3^-T,3A\ on Clinton's 
death, 344; manages Independ- 
ent Treasury bill, 398 

Yates, J. V. N., 62 

Yates, Joseph, loses judgeship, 
264-265 ; elected governor in 
1822, 279-280; nominates Piatt 
and Spencer for judges of the 
supreme court, 280; calls special 
session of the legislature, 289; 
candidate for governor in 1824, 
290 

Young, John, 422 

Young, Samuel, 221 ; characteriza- 
tion of, 239-240; in convention 
of 1821, 247, 264; on state road, 
336; refuses Loco-Foco nomin- 
ation, 393; opposes internal im- 
provement, 406 

Young Men's Conventions, first 
held in 1824, 297 



ifif« 



e?0 



VITA 

The writer was born in Potsdam, N. Y., December 7, 
1887. He was graduated from the Potsdam Normal School 
in February, 1907. In 191 1 he received the degree of A. 
B., and in 1912 that of A. M., both from Columbia. He 
took courses in the School of Political Science of that 
university in 1911-12 and 1912-13, chiefly under Professors 
Dunning, Osgood, Beard, Shotwell, Robinson and Seager. 
In 19 1 2 he was appointed Lecturer in Politics and in 19 13 
Instructor in History, which position he now holds. 



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